Love and Other Things
by Msmandijmoore
Summary: Love is messy and life is complicated. Neither were expecting it but neither are willing to let it go. An unexpected illness, a kidnapping, a crazy ex wife, best friends, lovers, and everything in between. What else can life throw at these two? Brettonio post "Blind date" nonsense.
1. Chapter 1

Sylvie was devastated, hearing those words out of Antonio after she had just realized exactly what she wanted. He was going on a blind date, she knew it was her fault, that she was the one who wanted to keep it casual to protect her own heart. She didn't have any right to expect Antonio to wait around forever for her. And she knew he wasn't a mind reader there was no way he could know what she was feeling and wanted. She felt like vomiting, she had to get away as fast as she could.

Getting to her car, she reached into her pocket for her keys to find they weren't there.

"Damn it!" Sylvie sighed and headed back towards Molly's where she was hoping she would find them quickly. She couldn't remember whether she had actually put them in her pocket or had sat them on a table when she met Gabby earlier.

Kelly was sitting at the bar and noticed Sylvie walk back in, she looked like she was going to cry.

"Brett" Kelly called to her. Sylvie slipped a smile onto her face and walked toward him.

"What's wrong?" Kelly asked concerned for the blonde.

"I think I lost my keys" she replied.

"Hey Otis, has anyone turned in Brett's keys?" Kelly yelled.

Otis checked the lock box and shook his head at Kelly.

"Ugh, I need to find them or I won't be able to get my car home tonight" Sylvie was visibly upset, tears threatening to spill any second.

Kelly got off the barstool and started searching the bar yelling at several other guys to get up and help in the search for them.

Twenty minutes later and her keys were still nowhere to be found.

"Someone must have taken them by accident, maybe someone will turn them in by the end of the night, do you need a ride home?" Kelly asked.

"I was really hoping to avoid home for a little while, Cruz is there and I really wanted to go set in the parking lot in my car for some peace and quiet but sure if you can run me home that would be great." Sylvie sounded as if she needed a stiff drink and someone to listen to her complain Kelly thought to himself.

"Tell you what, why don't we go back to my place and just hang out and talk or just sit. I'll even lock myself in my room and you can have the whole apartment to just be alone" Kelly grinned at her.

Sylvie thought about it, Otis and Cruz rarely let her just be, they were always talking and never left her alone with just her thoughts. She knew Kelly wasn't big on talking and feelings and he would happily just let her sit in silence or maybe she could confide in him. Maybe she needed a friend who was completely removed from the situation, Gabby was great but she is Antonio's sister.

"Thanks, Kelly, maybe that's what I need" Sylvie was hoping that this decision would bring her some clarity.

Fifteen minutes later Sylvie and Kelly had arrived a his apartment.

"So how do you want to play this kid, am I locking myself in my room or…what?" he was trying to joke with her to get a genuine smile but she was having no part of it.

"No, no you can stay…I think I really just need someone who isn't directly involved in my life to listen and maybe offer some advice, if you think you can handle that. I mean you can completely shut me down at anytime if you don't want to hear it after I start complaining." Sylvie was starting to ramble, which she did often when she was feeling nervous, she could hear her voice getting higher and herself starting to ramble but she was at a complete loss at stopping it.

Kelly smirked and grabbed her shoulders looking her square in the eyes. "Hey, calm down, I don't care what it is, you talk, I will listen and give my award winning advice after." He chuckled at his own joke, clearly amused with himself.

Sylvie couldn't help but smile at him. "Oh, shut it." She joked back, slapping him lightly on the shoulder, not many people got to see this side of Kelly and she really enjoyed it when he was being silly.

Sylvie padded over to Kelly's sofa and plopped down on it, immediately making herself at home, she kicked off her flats and tucked her feet up under herself and grabbed the throw off the arm of the sofa. She had hung out here a lot with Stella and Kelley when Stella still lived here and felt comfortable.

Kelly headed for the kitchen and grabbed two glasses and a bottle of whisky. If he is going to do this he is going to need alcohol.

Kelly made his way over to the couch and set down next to her and turned his body to face her and poured both of them a drink.

"So what's got you so upset tonight, huh?" Kelly just went for it figuring the faster she got whatever was bothering her out, the faster she would get back to her bright, bubbly self.

"Antonio" she sighed. Kelly knew that they were still seeing each other off and on as they were frequently at Molly's while he was there. They pretended to not be together but always left at the same time, it was quite obvious to anyone who paid the least bit attention.

Sylvie could feel the tears about to fall "Sorry but I'm probably gonna cry at you and I'm an ugly crier." she wanted to give him fair warning but he just smiled and motioned for her to carry on.

"I thought I was pregnant" she looked at Kelly for any hint of shock but there was none, "I'm not though and Gabby advised me that I didn't need to tell him because there was nothing to tell" she could hear the absurdity of the advice as she was saying it.

"You want my opinion?" Kelly asked, he was willing to let her speak for as long as she needed to before offering advice and opinions.

Sylvie nodded, "insert your comments anywhere Kelly, I won't mind I promise".

"Well if my uh…whatever you two are…thought she was pregnant I would want her to come to me…he's a good guy, probably one of the only ones I would ever trust with you. I think he deserves to know and you deserve to have him there to go through the emotions with you, not alone." Kelly cared deeply for Sylvie, once upon a time he thought he liked her and could see a possible future with her; he thought she was one of the best people he had ever met. But after seeing how she was with Antonio, he gave up on that idea, clearly they were soul mates, everyone could see it except for the two of them.

Sylvie contemplated it for a minute and sighed, "he told me tonight that he was going on a blind date and it hurt. I was ready to tell him that I wanted to try again but…"

"Then tell him" Kelly interrupted her "that's all that man wants from you, lord Sylvie, I wish you could see the way he looks at you when you two are pretending to ignore each other. He obviously thinks the world revolves around you. You're the only one who can't see it."

Sylvie blushed "No he doesn't, I think I'm just convenient and familiar."

Kelly was starting to get exasperated but didn't want Sylvie to feel like he was getting upset with her. He rubbed his palms down his face and rubbed his eyes, the effects of the alcohol were starting to take its toll. "Okay just talk and I'll listen."

Sylvie shook her head, "I think I just really need to go to bed, can you drive me home?"

"It's 1:30 in the morning, why don't you just crash in the guestroom and I'll drop you in the morning, is that cool? I'll give you a t-shirt and shorts to sleep in." Kelly was hoping she would agree, he didn't think he should be driving anywhere.

Her head was starting to spin and she really just needed to lie down before she vomited. "Okay, but are you sure that's okay? I can call an Uber." He threw some clothes at her, "No way in hell am I sending you in an Uber in the middle of the night, Antonio would kill me if something happened to you, now go to bed" He said dead serious.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Kelly dropped Sylvie off at her car the next morning. Otis had texted after Molly's had closed that someone had turned her keys in and that he was taking them home with him. Kelly drove her to pick up her keys then took her to her car.

"Thanks Kelly, we need to hang out again soon it's been way too long, this weekend?" She really enjoyed Kelly's company and she felt like she could be herself around him.

"Umm…actually yeah, I wanna talk to you about something too, we'll talk about it on next shift okay?" Kelly sounded unsure of himself. He had thought after last night that maybe Sylvie living with Otis and Cruz wasn't an ideal situation for her. She seemed to struggle keeping them out of her life and finding alone time. He wanted to offer her his spare room. He knew Stella wouldn't have a problem with it and would probably be excited. And, really, he just missed having a roommate, he didn't like living alone.

After dropping Sylvie off, Kelly sent a text to Matt. "Hey can I get Antonio Dawson's number?"

Matt responded immediately with Antonio's number probably figuring Kelly had a police issue he needed help with.

Kelly texted Antonio, "Hey, it's Severide, can we meet up for a beer tonight?"

Kelly needed to talk to Antonio; he wasn't going to break Sylvie's trust he just needed to talk some sense into the guy.

Antonio responded thirty minutes later "Yeah, Molly's, 7? Is there a problem?"

"Sounds good, no problem" Kelly had to be on shift at 6 am tomorrow and knew Sylvie wouldn't be at Molly's because she didn't go out the night before a shift.

Kelly arrived at Molly's at seven and threw two fingers up to Herrmann motioning for him to bring him two beers. Antonio was sitting at a table in the back watching highlights from a Blackhawks game on the TV. Kelly knew he was getting ready to insert himself into something that was really none of his business and really hoped that Antonio's temper would stay in check because even though he was quite a bit bigger than the guy he was pretty sure the boxer could kick his ass without hesitation.

"Hey bro, what's up?" Kelly said as he slid onto a stool across from Antonio.

"Nothing much, so what did you need to talk about?" Antonio kept staring at the TV, clearly not in much of a mood for small talk. Herrmann arrived with the beers and told them to enjoy.

"Sylvie" Severide said slowly trying to gauge Antonio's reaction but Antonio's poker face was good and didn't let anything slip. "What are you doing to her man?"

"I'm failing to see where this is any of your business" Antonio didn't raise his voice but was dead calm staring Kelly in the eyes which worried Kelly more than if Antonio had an outburst.

Kelly sighed, "I'm not here to fight with you or overstep in anyway but she's like a little sister to me. What would you say to someone who was pulling Gabby around? Besides, whatever I say to you, I said to her too. You both obviously care about each other but keep playing this game and she is getting hurt in the process. It needs to stop and you need to talk to her," Kelly just blurted out hoping that Antonio didn't react adversely.

Antonio didn't move or say anything; he just sat there for several minutes staring at his beer. Finally after what felt like an eternity Antonio sighed and slumped his shoulders "I fucked up, I don't know how to fix it." He took a swig of his beer. "The last time we were together I spooked her when she wanted to keep it casual, I stupidly told her she was special to me." Antonio was visibly flustered. "So this time I figured I would tell her I was dating other people and when I did she looked like I had just betrayed her, I knew it was a mistake as soon as I said it." Antonio rubbed his face and stretched his arms.

"Look bro, Sylvie is the first woman I've dated, hell even talked to since my divorce. I was married 16 years, I'm completely lost at this dating thing." He laid his forehead down on his hands on the table.

"Talk to her, I told her last night that you are one of the only guys I trust with her, and I meant that." Antonio looked up at Kelly. "Like I said she's like a little sister and I've seen her with other guys and she is definitely in love with you, she's just too scared to admit it. You're gonna have to be patient with her." Kelly held his beer up for the bartender to see and motioned for two more.

"Gabby keeps giving her advice and honestly I don't think it's the best, I don't think Gabby has a clear head when it comes to you and Sylvie. So instead of letting her get her advice from Gabby please talk to her because she has some stuff she needs to talk to you about but she doesn't think she means that much to you." Kelly was soft-toned as he spoke to Antonio knowing that speaking about Gabby could send him over.

"She means everything to me, next to my kids, I promise you that. And yeah I get it, I was all over Matt when he was letting Gabby deal with fostering Louie on her own. I don't mind picking Gabby's fights if she isn't able too but lets face it Gabby can handle herself." Antonio laughed relaxing more as he understood where Kelly was coming from.

"She is kinda scary when she goes all Gabby Dawson isn't she?" Kelly laughed, relaxed now that him and Antonio were joking around.

"Another thing Antonio...how would you feel about me asking Sylvie to move in with me?" Antonio cocked an eyebrow at him "I have a spare room and I think she might be more comfortable with me rather than with Otis and Cruz who are constantly in her business. I haven't talked to her about it yet but wanted to get your opinion and let you know that I wasn't trying to hook up with her or anything. I'm just trying to look out for her." He looked at Antonio who seemed to be mulling around with the idea.

"I think it's a great idea if that's what Sylvie wants…but don't you have a girlfriend, umm…Kidd right? She's okay with it?" Antonio asked.

Kelly smirked "Yeah she's pretending like it's her idea, she loves Sylvie."

Antonio knew this was true; Stella was one of Sylvie's best friends judging by how much they texted while him and Sylvie were together.

"Hey listen, I have shift in the morning so I better get going, get this taken care of okay." Kelly stood to leave and let out a yawn.

"I'll text her tomorrow, we'll get it straightened out. Don't worry I got the tab for your trouble of having to kick me in the ass" Antonio chuckled and rose to walk towards the bar to pay the tab. "Night"

"Night and thanks for not kicking my ass for inserting myself" Kelly grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

Sylvie and Gabby had just returned from a call, poor kid fell off a back porch and broke his arm, when her phone vibrated alerting her to a text message.

"I think we need to talk…hopefully tomorrow after you get off shift?" Sylvie just stared at the text from Antonio, her heart starting to beat faster.

She didn't know what to say and Gabby was staring at her wondering why she just stopped talking in the middle of their conversation.

"Is everything okay Brett…you look like you just saw a ghost" Gabby was starting to get concerned.

Sylvie shoved her phone in her vest pocket "Sorry…yeah I'm okay just still not feeling so well" it wasn't the exact truth but it wasn't exactly a lie either, she was still feeling some residual effects of the stomach issues and food poisoning she's had over the last several months.

Sylvie walked into the bunk room hoping to lay down for a couple minutes between calls, Kelly spotted her "Hey Brett can you come here a minute?"

"What's up lieutenant? Is everything okay?" Sylvie said walking into Kelly's quarters and setting on his bed.

"So that thing I wanted to talk to you about…you got a minute?" Kelly was hoping they could get this out of the way. She nodded her head. "I wanted to know if you would be willing to be my roommate, I have that spare room and honestly I would love the company?" Sylvie laid back on his bed and sighed loudly.

"Why would you want me as a roommate? I already have a place to live and what about Stella?" Sylvie was confused by this whole conversation.

"I think that you would be more comfortable at my apartment, more freedom, no nosey roommates, and there is only one of me and not two man-children, and let's face it I'm a lot better to look at." Kelly smirked. "And Stella is fine with this, I talked to her yesterday and she thought it was a good idea, but you're more than welcome to talk to her about it and I'm sure you will."

"I'm not sure about this Kelly, I'm going to have to think about it, just give me a few days to process, okay?"

Sylvie didn't know what to think this was all out of nowhere, sure her and Kelly were friends and hung out, they knew each other pretty well but for him to just ask her to move in with him, that was just a little out of his usual realm. She would need to talk to Gabby and Stella to get their opinions and she really didn't want to hurt Joe or Otis.

"So you up for a little more advice giving?" Sylvie asked making puppy dog eyes and pouting at Kelly. Kelly nodded and gave her a little smile.

"So Antonio texted me and asked if we could meet after shift tomorrow to talk…I'm not sure what I should say to him"

"Meet with him…hear the guy out, see what he has to say. Maybe it's something you want to hear." Kelly was relieved Antonio stuck to his word and he hoped that Sylvie would take his advice.

Sylvie went back to her bunk and pulled out her phone. She plopped her self down on her bed. She read the message again before typing her reply "how about breakfast at the diner on Halstead…will that work?" Tonio responded immediately "I'd rather do this conversation a little more privately, how about breakfast at my place? Eva and Diego will be at school. 7am?"

Sylvie didn't know how exactly she felt about meeting him at his apartment; they didn't have the best of luck getting through a full conversation when there was a bed near by. But she figured he probably wouldn't relent and if he said he needed to talk privately then it was probably serious. She texted him back "sure sounds good, see you in the morning." Her head was spinning and she felt nauseous. She fished some Tylenol out of her nightstand drawer and took it; laying back down she hoped they wouldn't have a call for a while so she could rest.

Sylvie got a full twenty minutes before the bells went off; she got up and ran for the ambo. She took the passenger seat more than willing to let Gabby drive today.

"Are you okay Brett? You've been acting a little weird for a while." Gabby asked glancing at her. Gabby was really concerned for her friend, she knew Antonio had told her he was going on a blind date but whatever this was seemed deeper than just that.

"Severide asked me to move in with him," Sylvie stated plainly, hoping to steer the conversation away from anything Antonio related.

"What? Why would Severide ask you to move in? Seems odd." Gabby said surprised.

"I stayed the other night when we hung out, he was too drunk to drive me home. There's nothing going on, he's like a brother, plus Kidd is on board I guess" Sylvie kept her eyes trained on her hands.

"Well, it would be more quiet than your apartment, maybe it's not a bad idea. You've seemed stressed with Cruz and Otis constantly in your business." She wanted to sound supportive and maybe it really was what Sylvie needed. Cruz and Otis cared about Sylvie a lot but Cruz had no boundaries when it came to Sylvie and they were both constantly inserting themselves into her personal life.

"Maybe" Sylvie was staring out the window watching the city pass by, she was really hoping they were near the call so this conversation would end.

Gabby decided to give up for now, she really wanted to ask about Antonio but Sylvie didn't seem herself so she thought better of it and let it go. She would eventually get it out of her and she would try to talk to her brother too maybe he would tell her.

Later that night everyone was hanging out in the common room waiting for Cruz to finish dinner. Sylvie was sitting on the couch with her arms around her knees; she was trying to watch TV but was distracted with her thoughts and had no clue what was actually on. Stella stepped over the back of the couch and sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Hey babe what's up?" Stella asked hoping Sylvie was seriously considering Kelly's offer, she had thought it was a great idea. She knew Kelly got lonely and had problems living alone and she knew that Sylvie would never do anything to hurt her.

"Ugh, nothing really, just tired, hoping this shift is over soon, only 10 more hours" she tried to sound joking but anyone with eyes could tell she was serious.

"I know Kelly talked to you and I really do think it's a good idea for the both of ya, in my little humble opinion" Stella looked at Sylvie and noted she looked tired.

"Mmhmm, thanks Stella" Sylvie really didn't feel good and jumped up and ran for the restroom. She barely made it to the toilet before she threw up the little food she had to eat for the day. Cursing the food poisoning she cleaned up and returned to the bunkroom to lie down, luckily the rest of the night was slow. Ambo only had two calls the rest of the night and Sylvie was able to rest, Gabby picked up the slack and completed inventory and stocking to let her friend get sleep that was obviously needed.


	4. Chapter 4

Sylvie pulled up to Antonio's place and slowly walked up the stairs. She knocked but there was no answer so she tried the handle and the door opened.

"Antonio?" Sylvie yelled in the seemingly empty apartment. She heard the water in the bathroom shut off.

"Sylvie, you here?" Antonio shouted from his bedroom "Give me a minute, I'll be right there"

Tonio emerged from his bedroom in a pair of sweatpants hanging low around his hips, no shirt, and hair still wet from the shower. "Sorry, I lost track of time…you want some pancakes? Coffee?"

"No, thanks. My stomach is still a mess from this food poisoning thingy I had a couple weeks back" she tried not to stare at him cause no matter how sick she felt, Antonio looking like he did right then was bound to lead to other things. "Can you please put a shirt on?"

Antonio smirked and went to his room and grabbed a shirt, pulling it over his head he walked to the kitchen and grabbed his cup of coffee.

"I told Voight I would be late, so don't worry about this taking too long" he didn't want her to feel like he was rushing her.

"What do we need to talk about?" She went to the table and set down, she was trying to not sound annoyed but was failing miserably.

"First off, not to sound rude so don't get pissed, but Sylvie you look like shit. You said you had food poisoning, are you sure that's all, you're really pale." She rolled her eyes and just stared at him, she knew she didn't feel good and didn't need him to point it out to her.

"I'm fine, or I will be, just need to put another week or so behind me, I'm sure Gabby will hook me up to a IV if I get too bad" she smiled weakly at him trying to reassure him.

Antonio decided to just get this over with and lay it all out there and let her decide what to do with it. "I lied to you the other night, there was no blind date" he kept his eyes down not wanting to look into those blue eyes. "Why?" was her only response, her voice void of any emotion.

He raised his head to face her but was careful to not quite make eye contact. "I didn't know how to handle the situation, last time we were casual, I got too attached and you bolted so this time I figured I would just tell you I was dating other people so you wouldn't leave but I realize that was wrong and I hurt you." He finally made eye contact, her blue eyes swelling with tears.

"I'm not any good at this, Laura had been my only relationship in my life up until you, and we got together in high school, got married, had kids, and then divorced. Then you came along, the first and only person I've dated since and I knew right away that you were it but the age difference, the divorce, Laura's crazyness, and the custody battle, I just let fear get in the way. " Antonio got up and walked around the table setting next to Sylvie he pulled her chair around to where they were knee to knee and put his arms around her neck drawing her forehead towards his.

"I thought I was pregnant, I'm not though, I took a test" she just blurted it out tears gliding down her face. Antonio took his arms from around her neck and leaned back in his chair and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He didn't know what to do with that information, he was shocked to say the least.

He quickly gained his composure "Why didn't you come to me?" he grabbed her hands.

"I was scared, you've already told me we were in two different places in life, gave me all the reasons we wouldn't work and I didn't know what to do so I went to Gabby, next best thing I guess" she smiled at him, the smile not reaching her eyes.

"Look at me, I want you to listen okay?, no matter what we're doing, our relationship status, if we're fighting or not, you can always come to me about anything and I'll set it all aside and listen and I won't judge, I promise, okay?" he was frustrated with himself that she was scared to talk to him, how did he ever let this get so bad.

"I'm not gonna lie Sylvie, you and me, that's what I want, I keep going with the casual thing just so I can have you in some way but that's not who I am, I don't think causal will work for me, I need the relationship, the commitment, I need you here." She started to sob, she just couldn't hold it back anymore, her emotions took over and she leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. He didn't move he just let her do whatever she needed to; the kiss was over as quickly as it started.

She pulled away and stood. Antonio panicked setting up straight, "Where are you going?" he gently grabbed ahold of her wrist as she started to walk away pulling her back towards him.

She didn't try to pull away but instead just stood there and stared at him for a minute.

"I'm just going to the couch, my head hurts" he let her wrist go and she moved to the couch and sat down.

"You want some Tylenol and water? I really think you should try to eat something." he started walking toward the kitchen to grab what she needed. "

Just the water and Tylenol, nothing else will stay down" her head was really pounding.

She didn't know how to respond to him. He just told her everything she wanted to hear and everything she was going to tell him the other night before he broke her heart with the lie.

"Severide asked me to move in with him" she wanted to forget about their feelings for a moment. "He's not interested in me, he's still dating Stella but she moved out and he thinks we would be good roommates."

Antonio didn't want to let on that he already knew "And what do you want? Do you think it's a good idea?" he wanted her to be able to make this decision completely on her own and not because she thinks he would be jealous or not.

"I think it might be good, I would definitely have more privacy and it would be quieter." The more she thought about Kelly's offer the more she was for it. "

Then do whatever will be best for you, I personally thinks it's a good idea, I trust Severide." Antonio handed her the meds and water and she took them. He grabbed Eva's throw blanket from the chair and handed it to her, she eagerly took it and covered herself.

Barely audible she started "The other night outside of Molly's, I was on my way here to talk to you." She paused and got a sad look on her face tears still gently streaming down, she reached behind the sofa and grabbed a tissue from the sofa table.

Antonio didn't say anything he just stood there with his arms crossed across his chest looking at her, pleading with his eyes for her to keep talking.

"I was going to tell you that I wanted to try again, that I wanted to be all in but you told me that you were going on the blind date and all I could think to do was walk away, you hurt me more with that one little lie than I've ever been hurt by anyone." There was no anger in her voice, only sadness.

Antonio looked up toward the ceiling rubbing his palms against his face willing himself not to cry. He's cried few times in his life and he knew Sylvie telling him that he hurt her worse than anyone ever has would likely be added to that short list.

"I promise I didn't mean to, I fucked up, I'm sorry, if I could go back and change it I would because the look on your face after I said it almost killed me, I knew right in that moment I fucked up and hurt you" he walked toward her and set on the coffee table in front of her.

"I know you wouldn't purposely hurt me and I know I hurt you when I walked out last time, I knew you had feelings for me and so did I for you but I needed to end it before my heart got broke like the first time. I guess neither of us are any good at this." She sniffled and tried to put a smirk on her face to diffuse the tension.

He smiled back at her "Why don't we work on it together? Try to figure out everything and start back at one and just date?" he would try anything to make their relationship work this time; he moved to the sofa and sat facing her.

She leaned forward and hugged him around the middle. She held on for several minutes just breathing in his scent before finally pulling back, she had forgotten how much she missed just hugging him. "I think I would like that" she smiled wiping her face, she felt a little better with some of the angst lifted from her shoulders.

Sylvie was visibly more relaxed Antonio noticed but she still looked like she needed to sleep and to eat.

"Are you sure you're okay? I'm really worried about the way you look, has Gabby checked you over or have you been to the doctor?" he was very concerned and contemplated asking Gabby if she would look her over.

"I just need to sleep, what time are you leaving for work?" she asked needing to head home and go to bed.

"I really don't think you should be driving, why don't you just hang out and I'll finish getting ready for work and I'll drive you home and either I can come pick you up tonight to get your car or someone else can run you here later?" She nodded, she didn't have the energy to argue and truthfully she could barely keep her eyes open and knew she probably shouldn't be driving.

Antonio went into the bedroom to get ready and when he reemerged Sylvie was asleep on the couch. He gently tucked the blanket around her and lifted her head and placed a pillow beneath it so she wouldn't have a stiff neck when she woke up. He pulled out his phone and went back into his bedroom to make a quick call.

"Hey its Tonio, I won't be in today, can you manage without me?, I'll do paperwork from home." Voight gave his approval and Antonio grabbed his laptop off his nightstand and went back out to the living room and made himself comfortable in the chair next to the couch. He didn't have the heart to wake Sylvie and knew she would be better off being looked after by him than by Cruz and Otis who would constantly wake her and bug her.

Sylvie blinked slowly waking, the room was dark and she didn't immediately recognize it, she knew from instinct it wasn't hers. She started to panic before her eyes readjusted and she recognized she was in Antonio's bedroom. She knew she didn't fall asleep in there, so she figured she must have fallen asleep on the couch and Antonio moved her.

She reached for her phone to check the time. It was seven in the evening, which meant she had slept for ten hours. She had never slept that long after shift in her life. She got out of the bed and went in search of Antonio.

She walked into the kitchen and found Eva cooking dinner, it smelled good, she was really hungry. "Hey Eva" Eva jumped a little and spun around, she smiled and wrapped her arms around Sylvie.

"Hey I've missed you". Right then Sylvie's stomach flipped and she broke the hug and ran for the restroom with her hand covering her mouth. 'Damn it!' she screamed internally as she vomited, she hadn't had anything to eat all day.

"Sorry Eva, I didn't mean to run away, I just don't feel good." She told the teen. Eva smiled and told her it was okay. "Where's your dad?" she wondered if he stayed home all day or went to work.

"He ran to the store, told me not to wake you, he said you've been asleep all day." Yup he stayed home with her, great, first day agreeing to try again and she's sick and he's taking care of her.

"I was just tired after shift, I'll be fine." She smiled at Eva trying to reassure her. "Do you need any help with dinner?" she really enjoyed cooking with Eva.

"No, don't worry about it, it's almost done anyway." Eva could tell she was only offering to be polite and that she really didn't feel up to cooking.

"Is Diego here?" Sylvie asked. "Nah, he went with dad, they'll be back soon." Eva said as she moved some pans to the sink.

Sylvie sat on the couch and texted Antonio. "I'm awake" was all she said. "Good, be there in a minute" was his immediate reply.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey Brett, you alive in there?" Sylvie could hear someone knocking on her door, she groaned and reached for her phone. 5:15am flashed across the screen. "I'm leaving in thirty, if you're riding with me you need to get up." Kelly yelled from the other side of the door.

"I'm coming, give me a couple of minutes" Sylvie responded her voice still full of sleep.

It had been six weeks since she moved in with Kelly and two months since her and Antonio had decided to get back together. They had agreed to take things very slow, they had a habit of falling into bed and nothing ever got accomplished that way. For now they were going on dates in public places and avoided apartments if possible. It seemed to be working they were getting along better than they ever had.

She was still not feeling to well, like she was just worn down. Antonio and Gabby were constantly trying to convince her to go to the doctor but Sylvie was stubborn and avoided doctors at all costs, she was a paramedic and thought she would know if she was bad enough to need a doctor. She reasoned with the fact that the vomiting had pretty much stopped and she was starting to put a little weight back on after losing nearly twenty pounds off her tiny frame, so she just needed to catch up on sleep and gain her strength back. Antonio was skeptical but arguing with Sylvie about something she knew more about was pointless so he let it go.

"I'm ready, is there coffee?" Kelly handed her a cup and smiled. "Already poured it for you." She eagerly took it and walked towards the door.

Sylvie hadn't driven to shift one time since she moved in with Kelly, she loved that she could just fall back asleep on the way there. She hopped in the car and put the coffee in the cup holder, she was asleep before Kelly made it out of the parking lot.

It was July and the heat index that day was supposed to be 115 degrees, the hottest day of the year, with no end in sight. The city was experiencing rolling brown outs meaning the firehouse was running on a generator and the air was not working. Luckily Sylvie and Gabby had been on calls the majority the morning, which meant air conditioning in the Ambo.

"God, this feels good" Gabby said as she shoved her face into the air vent after dropping a patient at Med. "I hope the power comes back on at the house soon, I don't think I can take much more of this" Gabby pouted.

Sylvie pulled out of the Ambo bay "you wanna stop somewhere for ice cream? We could take our time getting back" she smiled at Gabby. "Awe…look who has her appetite back, just took Tonio to fix it" Gabby teased Sylvie.

"Haha, funny Gabby…watch it or you'll start hearing stuff you really don't want to" Sylvie chuckled and pushed Gabby's shoulder knowing Gabby was terrified of accidently hearing a personal story about her and Antonio.

Gabby was truly happy Sylvie and Antonio were able to work things out and hoped that this time it would stick. She had her reservations in the beginning because there's just something about feeling like a third wheel to your best friend and your brother that can make you a little crazy. But even Gabby had to admit the two of them were better together.

She had been worried about her friend over the last several months when Sylvie was constantly sick and was looking like she was a skeleton, having lost a lot of weight not being able to eat. But she had gradually gotten better over the past few weeks and was starting to return to her normal self, she still wished she would go see a doctor just to make sure.

Sylvie pulled into Dairy Queen and parked the rig. "Come on, what do you want? My treat" Sylvie was trying her hardest to get back to her normal self. She was tired of everyone constantly thinking she was sick and nitpicking at her to go see a doctor. She just had to prove she was fine and if that meant eating an ice cream she really didn't feel like eating then she would do it.

Pulling back into the firehouse, Sylvie noticed Antonio's take home truck outside. "Hey Gabby, Tonio's here, did he tell you he was stopping by?" Sylvie took out her phone and checked for a text from him, when she didn't find one she was a little confused.

"Nope, didn't say anything to me". Now Sylvie was curious, she followed Gabby into the common room and there was no Antonio. "

Hey Mouch, is Tonio here?" Gabby asked the older fireman. "Yeah back in Boden's office with Casey, Severide, and Voight." He said nonchalantly.

"Do we know why…?" Sylvie asked hoping Mouch would elaborate. Mouch shrugged, he obviously had no clue what was going on nor did he care.

Boden appeared in the door way to the common room, "Brett, Dawson…my office" he sounded pissed. The paramedics looked at each other, neither of them could think of a reason the Chief would be mad at them, maybe the heat was getting to him.

Gabby and Sylvie moved quickly in the direction of the office, entering the four men, Casey, Severide, Antonio, and Voight, turned and greeted them quickly. Sylvie made eye contact with Antonio and gave him a little smile; he returned a grin trying to let her know everything was okay.

"Umm…Chief, I know I haven't done anything to piss anyone off lately, so what's going on?" Gabby was half joking with the chief but she gets herself into a lot of trouble with her mouth so maybe she missed something.

Voight was the first to speak up. "Actually you're not in trouble…quite the opposite actually, we need your help again."

"I haven't agreed to anything yet and I have final say if they do anything" Boden firmly stated from his spot behind his desk. He was pissed his paramedics were being asked to do this again, why the hell can the police not get undercovers for this.

"People like paramedics, they trust you guys. This is basically a repeat of the last time you guys helped us. Mrs. Johnson over on Cullerton, you two make frequent visits to her house right?" Antonio asked staring straight into Sylvie's eyes.

"Yeah she's one of our frequent flyers…a diabetic, she forgets to eat and take her insulin" Gabby loved Mrs. Johnson; she was the sweetest old lady.

"Good, you think she would let you in the door if you just show up?" Voight asked eagerly.

"Of course she will, we check on her in between calls often, we bring her food and check her insulin." Sylvie made a point to check on her at least once per week if they didn't hear from her.

"We need to know if her grandson is in the house, he's wanted on multiple murder and drug charges and we've had no luck verifying he is in the house, have you ever seen anyone there with her in the past?" Antonio was hoping they could verify him so they could hit the house in the next 24 hours, this guy needed to be off the streets ASAP but he hadn't been seen out in almost six months. Intelligence was certain he was holed up with grandma.

"Yeah a guy about thirty is always there with her, usually stays back in the kitchen while we check on her, it bothers me that there is someone there but she still gets so sick." Sylvie said with a little venom in her voice. It made her angry when families treated the elderly poorly.

"We need this done today, you think you two can do this?" Voight asked getting straight to the point.

"I still haven't agreed, I need to be assured they will be completely safe." The Chief was not going to just send his girls in without knowing they would be looked after.

"Look, you have my personal guarantee that nothing will happen to them, I would never put them in a situation that I thought they would wind up hurt" Antonio looked Boden dead in the eye trying to convey the seriousness of his words.

"Okay, I will pull ambo out of service but those two wear vests…I'm not taking any chances." Boden's word was final.

Sylvie pulled the ambo up to Mrs. Johnson's apartment building. She was feeling nervous it was making her stomach, chest, and side hurt and her head was starting to spin, she felt like she was going to have a panic attack. "Ugh, why am I so nervous? We've done this before" she said to Gabby.

"Just breath, it will be okay, I promise" Gabby squeezed Sylvie's shoulder to offer her support.

Sylvie jumped out and grabbed the bag out of the back and walked around the ambo to meet Gabby on the other side. She made it to the second floor, she was winded and breathing heavy but she persisted. Gabby knocked on the door. A male called through the door, "Who is it?"

Gabby replied, "Paramedics, we're here to do our weekly check on Mrs. Johnson, can we come in?" Antonio had shown the girls a picture of the offender, the girls were wearing a camera but they also wanted an eyewitness for the identification. "Yeah hold on a minute, I'll go get her and bring her to the front room."

Gabby and Sylvie stood outside the door and waited for the front door to unlock and them to be let in. Mrs. Johnson was the one to open the door, when they entered the male was nowhere to be found.

"Hey Mrs. Johnson, how are you feeling today? Have you been eating and taking your meds? I'm glad to see your air is working today" Sylvie was trying not to ramble and was trying to sound sincere.

"Yes honey, I've been trying to keep up with it, I promise" she smiled sweetly at the both of them.

"Well, me and Sylvie here are going out on vacation for three weeks and we need to make sure you are being taken care of. Is there anyone we can show how to give you insulin in case of an emergency?" Gabby was looking for excuses to get the male to come into the front room.

"My grandson, he should be able to do it, hey baby can you come here and let these young ladies show you how to take care of Nana?" A man who looked an awful lot like the picture Antonio had shown them emerged from the kitchen area of the apartment. Gabby sighed softly, thanking god he took the bait.

Just as the man walked over to where Mrs. Johnson was Sylvie winced and grabbed her side. "You okay Sylvie?" Gabby rushed to her side; worried that Sylvie was doubled over.

"I think so, my side just hurts" she gasped and winced in pain again and let out a yelp of pain. She tried to stand but fell to the floor. Gabby tried to catch her so she wouldn't hit her head when she hit the floor. She checked her and Sylvie was out cold. She checked her vitals, she was tachycardic and her breathing was off. She radioed it in and stated she would transport, to not send another ambo, she knew Antonio was down the street in a van but didn't want him to blow his cover.

"You, I need you to watch her breathing, if she stops yell for me, I have to go get the chair out of the Ambo" she yelled at the offender.

"Man, I don't know what I'm doing" he complained. "Look I need you to do this just hold your hand right here on her chest if her chest stops moving, yell for me, I'll be right back one minute okay?" she showed him how to do it.

"Don't blow your cover, I'll get her out," she whispered into the camera she was wearing as she ran down the stairs out of earshot of the offender. She grabbed the chair and ran back for the house.

"Help me lift her," she ordered the offender; he grabbed her under her shoulders while Gabby grabbed her feet and they lifted her on to the chair.

"What the hell is going on?" The offender was starting to freak out and was getting fidgety, it was clear he was starting to doubt the paramedics intentions.

"She's passed out, she's sick, I need to get her to the hospital, now! please move and let me do my job." Gabby said forcefully.

"What about my Nana? Ain't you supposed to be showing me how to save her or some shit?" Gabby gave him a 'I dare you to try to stop me' look and continued toward the door.

"I need you to help me get her down the stairs" she ordered him.

"Nope, I don't leave the front door" he said.

"Look my friend is sick and needs a hospital, she's a paramedic which means if I call for help to get her down, the police will show, if you don't want that…I suggest you help me" he hesitated for a moment and nodded agreeing to help her down the flight of stairs. Gabby checked Sylvie's vitals again, she wasn't any better.

Outside Gabby pulled out the stretcher and tried her best to load Sylvie onto it by herself and get it back into the Ambo. It took a few extra minutes but she accomplished it. She ran to the driver door and took off in the direction she knew the van was at.

Antonio was already standing outside the van when she pulled up. She jumped out. "You drive, were about five minutes out from Med…get us there now" she yelled at Antonio as she jumped in back with Sylvie.

The drive to Med seemed like an eternity. She hooked her up to the heart monitor and started an IV. "Sylvie, come on honey, wake up…I need to know what's going on…hang in there, we're almost to the hospital, it'll be okay." Gabby felt tears running down her face but she didn't have time to think about that at the moment.

They pulled up to the Emergency Room and Antonio threw the Ambo doors open and started to help Gabby pull the stretcher out. Dr. Manning ran out to meet them.

"28 yo female collapsed from unidentified pain in the field. GCS 12 , BP 126 over 80, pulse 125, sats in the high 80's" Dawson gave her vitals to Dr. Manning.

"Take her to trauma 2" Maggie yelled. Gabby finished wheeling her in and helped transfer her to the gurney, Antonio stood frozen outside the door.

She stood there staring at the chaos in front of her for a minute before she realized April was trying to ask her exactly what happened.

"I'm not sure she was fine, said she felt nervous before we went in, then all of a sudden she's grabbing her side and collapsed. We've been in the heat all day, the last two hours we've had bullet proof vests on…could she be having a heat stroke?" April started to usher Gabby out of the room towards where Antonio was standing to give the doctors room to work.

"I'm not sure, just let the doctors check her. Has she been sick, had any problems lately?" April was looking between Gabby and Antonio hoping one of them could give them some insight into what could be wrong.

"Actually..umm..yeah, she's been sick off and on for the last 4 or 5 months, she just can't seem to get better, as soon as she's over one thing something else hits her, vomiting constantly, nausea, weight loss, no appetite, fatigue, and headaches, it's been bad…but she's been better the last week or two, even has been gaining weight back." Gabby was trying to hold it together but was failing miserably. She turned into Antonio and started crying into his shirt.

"Do you know who her emergency contact is? We don't have one on file here." April needed to know, she knew Gabby was close with Sylvie and she thought she heard Antonio and Sylvie were dating again but neither were family and if Sylvie didn't wake up soon, someone was going to have to make decisions for her.

"I don't but Chief Boden will be here soon, he will know." She said still hanging on to Antonio. April went back into the room to relay Gabby's information to the doctor.

"What the fuck do you mean Joe Cruz is Sylvie's emergency contact?" Antonio was livid; he did not want to deal with his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend who has boundary issues.

"She changed it when she moved in with Cruz and Otis and hasn't updated it since, talk to him, I'm sure he's more than willing to let you make decisions." Boden was trying to help Gabby calm Antonio down. He was pacing back and forth in the waiting room, ready to pounce if someone even looked at him wrong. The nurses weren't letting anyone back in the room with Sylvie until Cruz appeared and gave them permission.

"Get him here now" Boden grabbed Antonio's shoulder and told him that he was already on his way.

Cruz arrived at the hospital and went straight to the ER to find a doctor to talk to. "Umm…I'm here for Sylvie Brett, I'm her emergency contact Joe Cruz." He knew he should probably go to the waiting room and find everyone else first but he needed to see Sylvie and check on her.

"Cruz, hey" Dr. Manning greeted him. "Hey, Dr. Manning what's going on with Sylvie?" He was really worried for his friend.

"Actually she's still out, possibly a combination of exhaustion, fever, and pain. We're running tests and are going to do an ultrasound and possibly an MRI to figure out what is causing the pain in her side" he nodded his head agreeing to the procedures.

"So how long before you think she will wake up?" He didn't like seeing her lying there in the bed with oxygen on and a heart rate monitor. She looked so small and helpless like a little child he just wanted to go to her and hold her hand.

"We're not sure, we may need you to sign some forms, unless there's someone else you think she would prefer?" Cruz being Sylvie's emergency contact confused Dr. Manning, she knew they had dated but that was years ago so she was trying to give him a chance to hand it off to someone else.

"No I can do it, she'd be fine with it" He made up his mind and decided to stay until her test results came back then he would update the others.


	6. Chapter 6

"Where the hell is Cruz? Someone try his cell phone again" Boden was starting to get frustrated it had been an hour since Cruz told him he was on his way, he was coming from the academy having had the shift off to complete some training.

Antonio couldn't sit still; he was pacing back and forth like a caged tiger. Gabby was leaning on Matt just waiting, watching Antonio to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. And Kelly kept moving from seat to seat to keep close to Antonio to hold him back in case he lunged for Cruz when he walked through the door.

Cruz walked into the waiting room, he looked a little shell-shocked. "Where the hell have you been?" Antonio immediately got into his face, Kelly grabbed him from behind around the shoulders and Boden stepped in between the two.

"Sorry I went to check on her first and they kept asking me questions and to sign stuff, and I set down to wait for her test result and…"

"Who the hell gave you the right to keep us all back here?" Antonio interrupted him.

"Sylvie did" he knew he said the wrong thing as soon as it left his mouth. Antonio broke free from Severide and his fist made contact with Cruz's jaw. Gabby jumped in knowing Antonio wouldn't swing if she was in the way and Matt and Kelly grabbed both of Antonio's arms and pulled him to a chair.

"Sorry man, I didn't mean it like that" Cruz was trying to apologize.

"I don't wanna hear it, you tell those damn doctors that I'm the one they talk to or me and you are getting in the ring" Antonio was back up on his feet fighting to get away from Matt and Kelly.

"Look, I was coming in here to get you, she's not awake yet but her test results are back and I think you need to be in there when she does wake up." He was talking softer to Antonio hoping he would calm down because the last thing he wanted to do was fight Antonio, he knew he would lose.

"I'm fine, let me go, I won't hit him again," he said as he shrugged Matt and Kelly off. "What's wrong with her?" he asked, needing to know what he was walking into.

"Just go, you can update everyone after you talk to the doctors if you want, I'm leaving it up to you" After the doctors had given him the test results he knew he was the wrong person and told April that Antonio was the person who needed to be making these decisions.

Antonio made his way back to the ER and to Sylvie's room after promising everyone that he would be back with an update soon. He stood in the door way just taking in the scene, Sylvie lying in the bed hooked up to IV's and machines, she looked so peaceful but pained at the same time. She really could be just sleeping he thought.

"Antonio" April touched his back to get his attention, he turned to see April and Dr. Manning standing there.

"What's going on with her, Cruz said something about test results, just give it to me straight okay." Antonio didn't want any bullshit or to dance around the problem, he needed to know what it was and how they were going to fix it.

"Well first off, she's has iron deficiency anemia and her hemoglobin is only a 4, we are admitting her and she will need at least two blood transfusions and an iron infusion to try and bring it back up into normal range, that coupled with the fever is likely the cause of the fatigue and headaches, and why she isn't awake right now." Dr. Manning asked if he understood and he nodded.

"Secondly she has pneumonia which is causing the fever and the breathing issues and probably the pain in her side, we've started her on IV antibiotics and fluids to start to get that under control" Antonio kept nodding to show he understood.

"So is that all? When will she wake up?" he kept his eyes trained on Sylvie willing her to wake up.

"We're not sure when she will wake up, that's up to her now but more than likely in the next couple of hours, there is no neurological reason she isn't awake, so that is good." April moved to turn Antonio to face them.

"And lastly she's pregnant, the ultrasound put her about 22 weeks. I'm assuming you're the father?" Antonio just blinked at her, Sylvie wasn't pregnant, she couldn't be she took a test after the last time and it was negative and they haven't had sex since they had gotten back together.

"Are you sure?" he was shocked.

"Yes we're very sure, ultrasound and blood work confirmed it and judging by her symptoms, I want to diagnose her with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, which is severe morning sickness, it would explain the vomiting and dehydration, lack of appetite, and weight loss she been experiencing."

He nodded his head, "But she took a pregnancy test 2 months ago and it was negative, how? You're telling me she's five and half months pregnant, this doesn't make any sense, and she doesn't even look five and a half months pregnant!" Antonio's voice was starting to rise, he started counting back in his head to confirm the dates and yeah the dates added up, right around Valentines day, they were together in February, he let out a breath of relief, he knew he was the father.

"She lost a lot of weight, the morning sickness hid the pregnancy and made it look like she was just sick. As for the pregnancy test, it was a false negative that can happen for a lot of different reasons. She should have came in for a blood test if she thought she was pregnant but we're past that now, we need to focus on getting her healthy and getting the baby healthy." She looked sympathetically at him; he looked like he was going to have a panic attack.

"Do you need me to get someone for you, Gabby maybe?" April asked. He shook his head, enough people knew Sylvie was pregnant before she did; she was the next one who needed to know.

"So what is the next step?" he asked the doctor as he grabbed the chair and dragged it over next to the bed and set down taking a hold of Sylvie's hand.

"Next we get her admitted up to the Maternity floor or possibly ICU, and get her transfusion started, then the iron infusion. We need to finish pushing fluids before we can start that, then we will deal with the baby but our first priority is to get Sylvie healthy. Sylvie very well may end up being on bed rest for the remainder of this pregnancy, the anemia and morning sickness are nothing to joke around with, just giving you fair warning." Antonio thanked Dr. Manning and April and let them know he would be right back; he needed to go update the others.

Antonio walked into the waiting room where the majority of the house was waiting, Squad had left to assist on a call but engine and truck were there. Gabby sprang to her feet when she saw Antonio

"How is she? Is she awake? What's wrong with her?" Gabby started shooting questions at him. Antonio took a deep breath trying to steady himself, his head was spinning and he felt like he was going to be sick.

"She has pneumonia, is dehydrated, and has iron deficiency anemia and low hemoglobin, she still hasn't woken up, they are going to admit her for fluids, antibiotics, an iron infusion, and blood transfusions." Antonio looked at Cruz and shot him a warning that he better keep his mouth closed, Cruz nodded at him that he understood.

"Do they have any clue how much longer she will be out?" Otis asked.

"At the moment, no, they said its up to her that it isn't neurological, she is just exhausted and sick."

Boden sighed in relief that it wasn't anything more serious. "Okay, Truck, Engine pack it up, Sylvie is going to be okay, Thank God, but we need to get back to the house and get the rigs sorted." He wanted to stay but knew there was nothing more they could do here.

"Kidd ride back with Dawson" Gabby gave him a bewildered look "I'm not leaving" she stated.

"Gabby go back to the house, I'm not letting anyone back until she wakes and don't get mad, it's not you, I just need you to respect my decision right now, can you do that? I'll tell her you were ready to box me over my decision if that makes you feel better." He smiled at her hoping she would just accept it and go back to the house. She stood up and walked towards him and looked at him for a second before she pulled him into a hug "Love you Tonio" he kissed her on the top of the head "Love you too sis".

"Tell her we're all thinking of her when she wakes up" Boden pulled Antonio into a hug.


	7. Chapter 7

Antonio had fallen asleep on the little uncomfortable couch in Sylvie's room. It was two in the morning when he heard stirring coming from the bed. "Sylvie babe, you awake?" he moved to the bed to check. She blinked several times before she spoke,

"Where am I, what's going on?" She was still groggy and confused by her surroundings. "You collapsed at the fake call, you've been out for about eleven hours, don't try to move you're hooked up to a bunch of IV's" he bent down and kissed her on the forehead, thanking the lord she finally woke up.

"What? Why did I collapse?" she was a little frantic. "Let me page the nurse and let them know your awake, so the doctor can check on you okay." He pushed the button for the nurse, he really didn't want to explain all this to her and hoped the doctor could make an appearance soon.

The doctor and a nurse arrived a little while later and completed vitals and a quick exam. "Do you know what you're in for yet?" the doctor asked, not wanting to explain twice if she didn't have too.

"I haven't explained yet, I'm not good with the medical stuff, didn't want to mess up" he was being honest, put a gun in his hand and he was golden, start with medical stuff and he was lost.

"You're being treated for pneumonia, iron deficiency anemia, low hemoglobin, and dehydration which is all likely caused by your pregnancy" Sylvie looked at Antonio like the world had gone crazy.

"I'm not pregnant, I took a test two months ago and its been what three months since we've had sex and I have my period every month!" she looked at Antonio and he was just staring at her "I swear Antonio, I've only been with you, no one else, no one in between, this isn't possible." She was starting to panic.

"Hey, hey listen, I believe you, just please finish listening to the doctor" he stood up and sat on the bed next to Sylvie and put his arm around her shoulder, she burrowed into his side.

"Ms. Brett, you're 22 weeks pregnant, the test you took was a false negative. As for the period, about thirty percent of women have bleeding that mimics their period during pregnancy, that is most likely what you are experiencing. I am wanting to diagnose you with Hyperemesis Gravidarum which is severe morning sickness based on your recent medical history and symptoms when you came in." Sylvie just stared at the doctor in disbelief.

"How the hell can I be five and a half months pregnant and not know it?" she was starting to cry, this was all way too much at one time "And your sure?" the doctor nodded and walked to the far side of the bed and turned up a dial on a machine Sylvie hadn't noticed she was connected too.

The sounds of a heartbeat filled the room; it was the fetal heart rate machine and she was hearing her baby's heartbeat for the first time. "Absolutely certain Ms. Brett, the baby has a strong heartbeat but it is small for its gestational age so we are going to work on getting the both of you very healthy very fast."

Sylvie was sobbing leaning against Antonio, he was rubbing her back and kissed her on the forehead. "How do we do that?" Antonio asked knowing that Sylvie wasn't going to be able to pull herself together.

"First, mom needs to start eating healthy, we're going to set you up with a nutritionist and I'll prescribe you a medication that will help with the nausea and prenatal vitamins." Antonio knew between the both of them they had great insurance so they wouldn't need to worry about that.

"Next, Sylvie I'm putting you on partial bed rest, that means normal light activities, no work in the near future, we can reassess if you like later but it's looking like the remainder of your pregnancy."

Sylvie quickly looked at Antonio with a panicked look; she couldn't afford to be off that long, she just moved in with Kelly, she had bills to pay. "Antonio leaned down and whispered in her ear knowing what she was thinking, "Don't worry about it, you have short-term disability, sick and personal time, and me" She looked up at him and shook her head "I can't accept..." he cut her off "Just finish listening to the doctor, we can talk about that later."

The doctor continued "and we are going to label you high risk, the OB is going to want to monitor you more closely, probably bi-weekly until you deliver. Do you have any questions?"

Sylvie had so many questions but she was a planner, she needed time to think about them and write them down, she was overwhelmed. She had a quick realization and panicked "Oh god I've been drinking! Not a lot but enough to get fuzzy once a week, did I hurt our baby?" she thought she was going to have a panic attack.

"The baby should be fine as long as you weren't drinking excessively, just let your OB know and they will monitor the baby okay?" Sylvie relaxed a little. "Do you have anymore questions?"

"When can I go home?" it was the only question she could think of.

"We've completed one transfusion and need to do another one, then we will check your hemoglobin again and repeat if necessary, afterward we will complete your iron infusion, we will need to set you up with a hematologist for follow up, but were looking at probably around 5pm or so if everything else is cleared." Sylvie and Antonio thanked the doctor and she left the room.

"I'm so, so sorry Antonio I didn't mean for this happen, I swear, I didn't know I was pregnant, we were always so careful, I'm on the pill and we use condoms, I don't know how it happened" she was sobbing, he lifted her head grabbing it with both hands and made her look him in the eyes, "I know you didn't and you have nothing to be sorry for, we were both there when this baby was conceived. Do you really think, that I think you would work yourself to this point of exhaustion and sickness if you knew your were pregnant?" He let go of her face and his shoulders slumped, he was exhausted.

"You're very sick, I thought…ugh, you don't want to know what I thought as we were pulling you out of the back of the Ambo. But look it's three in the morning, lets just lay down and try to rest before they come in and start poking and prodding you again okay?" Sylvie nodded in agreement and scooted to the far side of her bed "Will you lay here and hold me?" She needed the comfort and to feel safe in his arms. He kicked his boots off and scooted into bed next to her putting his arm behind her head and she snuggled into his side.

He pulled out his phone and texted Gabby, "She's awake, is doing good, will probably be released this evening, pass along, love you" Next he texted Kelly "She's awake and good, can you bring her up some clothes after shift? Thanks" he received an immediate reply from Kelly "I got her go bag in the car, I'll drop it on the way home". He turned off the phone and tried to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

"Gabby is going to kill us for not telling her immediately you know" it was meant as a joke but they both knew Gabby would be pissed.

"She'll get over it, it's only been two weeks since you got out of the hospital and we haven't even told the kids" he was trying to cook dinner but Sylvie kept interrupting, telling him he was doing it wrong but when he offered to let her to do it she said she couldn't. "

Yeah but now me and her have even less time to shop for the baby, god that sounds weird" she was adding more salt to the spaghetti sauce. Sylvie had her first appointment with the nutritionist before she left the hospital and they set her up on a diet plan that would help her gain more weight.

"Look we're going to 51 tomorrow while they are on shift and we'll let everyone know then and Gabby can wait one more day to find out she is going to be a Tia again." He smiled at Sylvie and slapped her hand away.

Since the hospital she felt much better, the nausea medicine was actually helping with being able to eat and keep food down. She had gained five pounds in the last two weeks. The nutritionist was pleased with her weight gain, while some women would balk at five pounds, Sylvie was underweight and needed to gain even more than the typical pregnancy and she was willing to do it if it meant her baby would be healthy. "

You look so much more healthy and happy, I'm glad I'm getting happy bubbly Sylvie back" he gave her an Eskimo kiss and patted her head as she was sitting on the counter next to him.

"Well you know blood products and antibiotics can do that for ya" she smirked trying to make a joke about it.

"Too soon and you better never ignore me when I tell you to go to the doctor again" he said pointing the stirring spoon at her. She stuck her tongue out at him and laughed,

"Okay Mr. Officer if that's the new law, I guess I have to follow it." She teased.

Later in the evening they were sitting on the couch watching Sunday night TV, the kids were tucked away in their rooms watching TV and playing on their phones.

"You know were going to eventually have to discuss it right?" Antonio was playing with her hair and stopped when she spoke, "I know, I just don't want to fight about it" he replied trying to gauge her mood.

"I can't just accept money from you, I think if I talk to Kelly he might let me put rent off until after the baby is here and I get back to work" Antonio knew he was going to get frustrated with his conversation quickly so he took a deep breath and decided on a different approach.

"We've been working on this feelings and honesty thing for a while and I think we've gotten pretty good at it right? so just hear me out for a minute okay" Sylvie nodded

"I think you should move in here and we'll try to find a bigger place before the baby gets here, there's no reason it should be shuffled between two houses when it has two parents who love each other and a brother and sister right here. With both of our incomes you won't need to worry about money."

Sylvie didn't reply immediately but got up and went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. She returned to the front room and set back down throwing her legs over Antonio's lap.

"Are we going to find out what this thing is or are we just going to keep calling it an 'it'?" Sylvie was trying to change the subject to give herself more time to think about his proposition.

"I wasn't expecting you to answer immediately you know, if you want more time to think about it you don't have to change the subject, and yes I want to know" he smiled at her and squeezed her thigh.

"By the way if it's a girl her name is Sophia, just so you know" Sylvie was dead serious about that one, she has always loved the name and called dib's on it in high school, a stupid silly thing teenage girls do.

"What you can't just pick our child's name without me!" he was taken by surprise,

"Umm, I can and I did, you can pick it if it's a boy, whatever you want, I can't object, pinky promise" she grabbed his hand and made him pinky promise.

"I think the hormones have made you a little batty" he teased; she stuck her tongue out at him.

"I think we should tell the kids before anyone else…we should probably do it tonight" Sylvie surprised him with her declaration; he thought she wanted to wait. "We can if you want I'm leaving it up to you" he wanted it to be her decision.

"Yeah now seems good, Diego, Eva, can you come here please?" She yelled from the couch.

Eva emerged from her room followed shortly by her brother, Sylvie asked them to set down and told them they wanted to talk to them about something. They both took a seat in each of the armchairs.

"We have something we want to share with you but we aren't sharing it with anyone else until tomorrow" Sylvie was talking in a hushed tone even though they were the only ones in the room.

"Are you getting married?" Diego asked excited. "No, stupid I bet dad asked her to move in, am I right?" Eva asked.

"Actually Eva you're a little right but we haven't figured all that out yet. The real news is your going to have a little brother or sister in a few months" Eva screamed and started jumping up and down and ran to hug Sylvie. "Oh my god, I'm so excited, congratulations, I can't wait, when is the baby due?" Sylvie pulled back from the bone-crushing hug being delivered by Eva. "Baby is due around Nov. 8th…I'm so glad you're excited, you're going to be the best big sister"

Sylvie noticed Diego sitting silently over in his chair and she looked at Antonio worried.

"Hey buddy what's wrong? Antonio asked concerned by Diego's reaction to the news.

"Mom's going to be pissed" is all Diego said and he stood up and walked back to his room shutting his door behind him. Sylvie and Eva both gave Antonio a worried confused look as he got up to follow Diego.

He knocked on the door "Can I come in?" Diego pulled the door open and sat back on his bed. Antonio took a seat next to him and threw his arm over his shoulder. "Why would your mom be pissed and why are you worried if she is or isn't?" Antonio asked softly.

"She doesn't like Sylvie and now if she hears about this she is going to try and take me back to live with her because she will be jealous. I don't want to live with her dad, I love being here with you guys" Antonio could tell that Diego was trying to be tough and not start to cry so he squeezed his shoulders to reassure him.

"First what happens here is none of mom's business especially if it concerns Sylvie or the baby, she has no reason to be jealous. And second, you told the judge where you wanted to live and he made the decision to put you here, mom cannot just come and take you, you belong right here with me, your sister, the baby, and Sylvie and nothing is ever going to change that. Do you understand?" Diego sniffled and turned to hug his dad "thanks dad, I really am excited, I should probably go tell Sylvie congratulations." Antonio hugged him back glad that he was able to reassure him and fix his mood.

Diego walked back out to the living room and hugged Sylvie and kissed her on the cheek "Sorry about that, I really am excited" she hugged him back even tighter. "It's okay, I know it's tough, and I know you're going to be the best big brother"


	9. Chapter 9

Antonio took a long lunch the next day, he told Voight he would explain when he got back but couldn't say anything before hand. Voight was skeptical and asked if it was something dangerous. Antonio assured him it wasn't and Voight waved him off.

Sylvie and Antonio walked into the common room of 51, Herrmann was the first to notice her and he jumped up and made a beeline straight to her wrapping her in a Herrmann hug. Everyone else followed suite glad to see her back in the firehouse. As far as anyone was concerned she had been on medical leave the past few weeks and would be back soon.

"So when's your next shift, I'm really over Chout, he's driving me crazy" Gabby really disliked that guy, he never shut up and everything was rainbows and unicorns with him.

"I need to go talk to Boden then I will let you know" everyone nodded and started to go back to what they were doing. Sylvie grabbed Antonio's hand and yelled over her shoulder "hey, Gabby we need you in there too" and she took off for the office.

Boden stood and came around the desk as Sylvie walked in; he wrapped her in a hug and told her he was glad to see her. "So are you ready to get back, did you get your medical clearance? I think Gabby is ready to have you back," he motioned toward

Gabby who was sitting on the couch.

"Umm not quite" she was so nervous her heart was threatening to pound out of her chest. "I'm on partial bed rest for the next three or so months" She was staring straight at Gabby and Gabby gave her a confused look that quickly turned to shock and she jumped out of her seat and ran for Sylvie, "You're kidding right, no way, what the hell, how long have you known? Oh my god! When are you due?"

Boden who had been setting there confused watching the whole interaction, understood as soon as Gabby asked about the due date and he started laughing. He came around and shook Antonio's hand and pulled him into a hug and turned to hug Sylvie once again congratulating them both.

Sylvie broke away starting to become overwhelmed, she took a deep breath and started talking "Well I'm six months pregnant, which means that stupid test you bought that was supposed to be the best was a piece of crap Gabby." She said sarcastically pointing her finger at her best friend.

"And we found out at the hospital, which was why Antonio was keeping everyone out of the room, he wanted me to know before anyone else. I'm sorry Gabby I know you were so worried and I appreciate everything you did to get me out of that apartment and to the hospital, I can never repay you." She looked at Gabby and smiled hoping she would forgive her "I also have a severe form of morning sickness that seems to be lasting the whole pregnancy but they have me on meds and put me on bed rest until baby is here."

Sylvie moved to sit down she was starting to feel tired.

Gabby came over to hug her again, "it's okay he did the right thing, do we know boy or girl yet?" Antonio decided to chime in, "Nope but I'm hoping boy, I get to choose the name and she can't veto, I'm thinking Ebenezer," he laughed, Sylvie shot him a look "Choose anything but a good name and you'll regret it" he laughed again "I'm kidding, I'm kidding geez"

"I really did need to talk to you though Chief, I need to fill out all my paperwork, can you have the secretary get it ready and I'll pick it up later this week?" she asked hoping she didn't need to fill it out here, she was getting tired and hungry and really just wanted to go lay in a bed and they still had other stops to make. "

It's no problem Brett, we'll get it together, I can send it home with Severide or Gabby, or Antonio can stop and get it if you want" he reassured her.

"You ALSO need to change your emergency contact don't forget" Antonio pointed out, still a sore subject. "Who do you think I should use…Kelly or Gabby?" the look she got told her Antonio was not in the joking mood about that subject, she didn't know about the brawl in the waiting room. "Okay, okay, you it is then" she laughed.

"Wait, hold up, this means I'm stuck with Chout, nope, no way Chief you need to find me someone else I can't do Chout for that long" Boden started laughing,

"Relax Gabby he's already been floated to another house next shift. I'll have to find you someone for the long haul."

She seemed satisfied with that answer and turned her attention to her brother "Way to knock up my best friend, I guess this is permanent then" she punched him in the shoulder then wrapped him in hug. "I'd say a baby is pretty permanent" he looked at Sylvie and smiled at her. "Congrats bro, I'm really happy for you" she turned to Sylvie again and hugged her.

"I guess were sisters now that your having my niece or nephew, I always wanted a sister I liked" she laughed at her own joke, Antonio glared at her he did not find her bringing up Laura amusing.

Sylvie and Antonio headed back towards the common room followed by Gabby and Boden. "So next shift?" Stella yelled holding up praying hands.

"Well it's going to be a little longer than that" Sylvie paused to look over at Antonio and caught Gabby bouncing up and down looking like she was going to explode with excitement.

"I'm pregnant, due in November" the whole common room exploded and ran for her hugging her and congratulating her. They were shaking Antonio's hand and were pulling him in for hugs. Everyone was very excited.

Kelly hung back and waited for the crowd to thin. When he saw his chance he moved in and wrapped her in a hug, whispering in her ear "Whatever you need let me know, I'm there and if you're gonna skip out on our roommate agreement, don't feel bad, I understand but I will miss you." He kissed her on her head and she hugged him a little tighter and kissed him on the cheek "thanks for being there for me" she whispered back.

Kelly moved over to Antonio and pulled him into a hug, laughing he said "I trusted you with her and you knock her up?" Antonio looked at him a smirked "couldn't help it, sorry, plus it happened before you trusted me with her" he joked, slapping Kelly on the back.

Cruz was the last to approach, he looked nervous. "Can I talk to you two alone for a minute?" Antonio was skeptical but Sylvie said sure and dragged them toward the briefing room.

"What's up?" Sylvie knew he was going to apologize even though she didn't think he needed too.

"First of all I want to say congratulations, I'm truly happy for you both. And I want to apologize for my behavior at the hospital, I knew Sylvie put me on there before you two were together and I also knew that even if you weren't there I should have went and got Gabby. I was being selfish and because of that I found out information I that I shouldn't have known first. I totally deserved that right hook to the jaw" Sylvie turned and looked at Antonio and he just shrugged acting like it was no big deal. "Joe it's okay, you kept my trust after you found out and you did the right thing as soon as you realized you made a mistake, I forgive you" Sylvie stood up and gave him a hug.

Antonio set there silent for a minute until Sylvie gave him a look that he took to mean 'accept his apology or die'. Antonio uncrossed his arms from his chest and offered his hand to Cruz,

"It's all good, just next time try to think before you let your emotions cloud your judgment, I know you care about her and she can never have too many people who care and for that I'm grateful." he set on the corner of the table,

"We're good bro…anyway taking my fist to your jaw was enough of a punishment, you didn't even go down, I was surprised." Antonio chuckled. Cruz rubbed his jaw "yeah two weeks later and it's still sore". Sylvie let out a sigh of relief; she was glad that everyone was getting along.

Leaving the firehouse Antonio could tell Sylvie was getting tired and she looked pale she but was trying her best to stay positive. "You hungry? We can stop and grab something" she nodded her head and climbed into the truck. "Anything is fine just find a drive-thru" Antonio headed for the Wendy's that was around the corner from the district. He figured they could grab something and eat when they got to the 21st.


	10. Chapter 10

"Are you sure you're up for round 2? I can just take you home and we can do this another day." He could see she was exhausted "No, we do this now, 51 already knows so it'll be a miracle if nobody here knows yet, plus you're the one doing this one, this is your place." He groaned and wished he could have a drink right now. He grabbed their food and headed for the entrance.

Platt was at her usual place behind the desk and yelled when she saw Sylvie and ran from behind the desk to give her a hug, "How are you feeling? Has he been taking care of you? Cause you know I can fix it if he isn't" she was joking with Sylvie.

"Of course he is and I'm feeling a lot better." Sylvie felt Antonio's arms wrap around her shoulders from behind she turned her head to look at him and he nodded and smiled at her.

"Hey Sarge, have you talked to Mouch today?" Antonio asked. Trudy shook her head, "No why? Is something wrong?"

Sylvie chuckled and motioned for them to walk back toward the desk for a little more privacy. "No nothing is wrong per say, actually I want to tell you something but you can't react out loud, okay?"

Platt had a confused look on her face but agreed. Sylvie leaned in and almost in a whisper said, "I'm pregnant". Trudy gasped, stepped back and looked from Sylvie to Antonio "Really?" she said a little to loudly. Sylvie shushed her and Antonio nodded "Yup about six months, I'm due in November, we really won't be able to hide it much longer." Trudy grabbed her and pulled her into a hug "You're not even showing, how?" Sylvie sighed and explained the situation.

Platt noticed the bag of food in Antonio's hand, "Have you eaten today, is that your lunch?" Antonio confirmed it was. "Then don't let me hold you up, you need to feed that baby, get going and eat before you tell anyone else. That's an order." Sylvie laughed and gave Trudy a quick hug and followed Antonio up the stairs to the bullpen.

Sylvie hadn't been in the bullpen more than a couple of times, the place intimidated her and if she was being honest, terrified her. She was pretty sure no one in Intelligence knew they were back together or that they had been off and on, with the exception of Kim whom she was pretty good friends with. Kim was Antonio's partner and one of his best friends, they were very protective of each other and Sylvie was glad that Antonio had someone like her to look after him. Sylvie also knew that Antonio was very protective of his personal life at work and didn't divulge a lot of information willingly. He had a clean line between work and home and tried his hardest not to cross the two unless absolutely necessary, Sylvie being a paramedic complicated that slightly when they had cases that crossed but they were both able to be strictly professional in those rare instances.

Antonio had two separate personalities for work and home; Kim often teased him about it, as did Gabby and Sylvie on occasion. At work he was in cop mode, usually serious and completely devoted to his cases, he usually came off as an asshole with little feelings, he followed the rules, and some even thought he was a little sanctimonious, which was laughable because he worked for Voight and everyone knew he was loyal to him.

But at home he allowed himself to relax and have fun, he was silly and caring and would do anything for anyone he cared about. The Unit did not get to see home side of him very often; even at the bar he tended to straddle the line but usually lent more toward cop mode.

As they reached the top of the stairs Sylvie grabbed Antonio's hand and tried to hide behind him. They had the entire unit staring at them and Sylvie could feel herself starting to get nervous. Kim stood and walked towards them, speaking softly to make sure no one could hear, "Hey Brett, how are you feeling? Sorry I haven't been to see you, I've been trying to pick up this ones slack" Kim pointed her thumb at Antonio. Antonio had been out a couple of days over the last couple of weeks. "I'm feeling better and no don't worry about it, you helped me more by helping him than you could if you would have came and seen me." Sylvie gave Kim a hug. The rest of the unit stared at the exchange between the three confused.

"Who's the girl?" Hailey leaned into Adam and asked. She knew she looked familiar but couldn't place her. "Names Brett, she's Tonio's sisters partner on 61." "Oh yeah, the one that helped us out on those two cases, they had to take her to the hospital a couple weeks back right?" Adam just nodded, not quite interested. Haley looked back up and stared at her for a minute, she did recognize her now but with her hair down and no paramedic uniform she looked a lot different. "Are they dating? He's holding her hand." Adam shrugged; he knew Antonio was a mystery about most things out side of work.

Jay heard the exchange between Hailey and Adam and rolled toward them in his chair. "Pretty sure they've been on and off for a while, Erin said something about it almost two years ago." Adam looked at him "Two years? How does he keep a girlfriend from us for two years? We've taken him out, tried to hook him up, well that certainly explains the lack in interest in girls I try to set him up with" Adam said.

"No…the lack of interest is not wanting to catch something, I've seen the girls you hang with" Jay deadpanned. Adam threw a pen and hit Jay in the face. When they returned their attention back to Antonio, he was heading towards Voight's office and stared straight at the three of them as he passed, they quickly pretended to be doing something, anything. Sylvie had sat at Antonio's desk to eat, Kim sat on the desk next to her chatting away.

Antonio entered Voight's office and shut the door behind him. "Hey Sarge, you got a couple of minutes?" Voight looked up, he saw Sylvie outside the door sitting at Antonio's desk. He knew Sylvie had been in the hospital after that fake Ambo call and that her and Antonio had some connection but didn't know exactly what.

"Yeah, what's up bro? Everything all right?" he was concerned, wondering if there was something going on with Brett as a result of the case, maybe she was being harassed, he hoped not.

"Nah, everything's good, I just wanted to let you know some news that is going to need a lot of my attention and I'll be in and out periodically." He knew Hank wouldn't have a problem with it and would let him do whatever he needed to for his family. "Well shoot, what's this news?" Hank was eager to know what was going on with his best detective.

"Sylvie….Brett" Antonio motioned toward her, "she's pregnant, she's having complications, which is the reason she collapsed on that call, they say she's high risk and put her on bed rest until the baby is born."

Hank set there for a minute. "Your the father?" he asked, he had no clue that they were dating but now that he looks back the signs were there he thought to himself.

"Yeah, yeah I am, she's due in November so it will only be a couple of months of doctors appointments and stuff" Antonio said smiling, it was obvious he was very happy about this.

Hank had a quick realization "You let me put a vest on her and send her into a house with a known violent felon when she was what...five, six months pregnant?" His voice was raising and he was close to losing his temper. "Did the stress or the heavy vest have something to do with her collapse? That was the hottest day of the year and she was loaded down with even more weight." Antonio stood up and held up his hands to try to calm Voight before he came over the desk to wring his neck, "NO, NO I DIDN'T, we didn't know she was pregnant, she was sick, I knew she was a little under the weather but I didn't know how sick she really was, she had pneumonia, dehydration, and anemia, she needed two blood transfusions, an iron infusion, fluids, and antibiotics. She also had severe morning sickness and everything together was hiding the pregnancy, we had no clue, I promise Sarge, we, me and you…didn't do anything wrong."

Hank sighed relaxing, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he had something to do with hurting Sylvie and that baby. He stood up and walked to Antonio and held his arms open, Antonio stood and gave him a hug. "Sorry, Congrats bro, I'm happy for you, if you or her need anything, and I mean anything just let me know, I'll take care of it and don't worry about time off, take what you need, I'll have you covered" Antonio pulled back and looked him in the eye's "Thanks that means a lot Hank"

The office door opened "Hey Brett are you done eating?" Hank yelled from his door. She looked up and shook her head "Pack it up, you can finish in here" She looked at Antonio questioningly and he nodded and motioned for her to come. She shoved her food back in the bag, grabbed her drink and moved toward the office, the door shut behind her.

"What's going on there, Burgess?" Atwater motioned toward Voight's office, if anyone could get it out of Kim it was him, but truthfully she had no clue. "Honestly don't know, I know they've been back together for a couple months again, that's all I know."

"He's so secretive with his life and he walks in here holding her hand, there's something more going on" Hailey thought out loud.

"You spend a lot of time with him and his kids over at his house and you're good friends with her and his sister and your telling me you know nothing? I call bullshit, Kim you know something." Adam was goading her trying to get her to spill.

"No, I promise I know nothing, she just moved in with Severide a couple of months ago and they just started dating again, they're on and off a lot, it's hard to keep up with."

"She lives with Severide? The hot one on Squad right?" Hailey asked. Jay interrupted her "Yeah, Erin thought he was hot too, he's her ex" Hailey frowned at that information but continued "Why is she living with Severide and dating Antonio, this makes no sense" Hailey commented.

Kim decided to just shut up; she went back to her desk and pretended to be working.

"Didn't she used to live with her Ex...uhh…Cruz right? And the other the other half of that weird bromance…Otis, _after_ she stopped dating Cruz?" Jay vaguely remembered Erin talking about it one time.

"Look guys I know nothing and yeah she did, they're nice guys, all of them over at 51 are, they're like a family. She regards all of them as brothers, just like I do with all of you." she said pointing a finger at each one of them, smirking when she pointed at Adam, Adam mouthed at her "oh really" and raised an eyebrow, the exchange not going unnoticed by Hailey, she would have to ask him about that later.

Voight's door opened and they all turned and looked at the three that just emerged. Voight leaned against his doorframe shoving his hands in his pockets and Antonio guided Sylvie back toward his desk and set her in the chair and he sat on the corner in front of her.

"Look I know you are all out here gossiping like little school girls so we're going to clear a few things up before the rumors start to fly." He met each of their eyes letting them know he was dead serious right now. "What I tell you stays in unit, I don't want any rumors or information coming from any of you, I'm sure you'll hear it from other places but I don't want any of you to be a source and if you don't hear it straight from me or Voight," he pointed over to Voight and all their heads followed, "just assume it isn't true, you can ask me about it but that doesn't mean I will answer, I will give you info if I want to, if I find any info coming from any of you, you're gonna go a round with me, do I make my self clear?" They all nodded, none of them wanted to get into a ring with a pissed off Antonio, even Atwater was terrified of that prospect.

"Yes, I have a girlfriend," he glanced back at Sylvie and continued "I know I don't talk about it, I think work is for work and not personal issues but with that being said I'm going to be out frequently over the next few months and it will be nearly impossible to keep my personal life out of my work life for the foreseeable future so I think it's only fair that I let you know why you will have to pick up my slack and plus I do think of you all as my family…you're the bratty younger siblings but family all the same." Kim stuck her tongue out at him.

He sighed and rubbed his hands together, this was so hard for him; he wasn't one to open up and spill anything out. Sylvie reached up and was rubbing his back trying to comfort him. "Just spit it out, we're here for you brother" Adam encouraged from across the room.

He looked at them all and let out another big sigh, "Sylvie's pregnant, high risk, and on bed rest until the baby is born, she's going to need a lot of help from me, meaning I'm going to need a lot of help from you."

Adam got up and walked straight to him and hugged him, "Congrats brother that's great news, you had me nervous there for a minute, thought you were gonna tell us you were dying or something." Adam laughed.

Hailey leaned over to Jay and whispered "Told you it was something else, still doesn't explain why she lives with Severide though." Jay just looked at her and shook his head. Everyone else started toward Antonio to congratulate him but Kim went straight in for a hug from Sylvie. "Why didn't you tell me? How far along are you?" Sylvie chuckled "Actually I'm six months and we just found out while I was in the hospital, I'll explain it all some other time when there aren't a bunch of ears I really don't know listening." Kim nodded that she understood and looked to Antonio and made a move to hug him tight around the middle, "Congratulations, I'm glad your happy, don't worry about your slack, I got it, just take care of them." She nodded her head toward Sylvie and then kissed him on the cheek.


	11. Chapter 11

Sylvie was so excited, today was her first OB appointment since being in the hospital, and when she made the appointment she was told she would have an ultrasound because of how far along she was and having no previous prenatal care.

Eva had insisted that she be there to see her little baby brother or sister for the first time. Sylvie was more than okay with it, she wanted the kids to be as involved as they wanted to be and she wanted them to know that her and Antonio were not trying to replace them.

"I bet it's a girl, it better be a girl, I need a little sister to pass all my knowledge on too," Eva said bouncing up and down next to the bed in the exam room. Antonio rolled his eyes, "You'll love it even if it's a boy, you love Diego." He pointed out. "Yeah, you already cursed me with a brother once, you better not do it again, and I do love him but he drives me crazy." She pretended to whine.

Sylvie really loved watching Antonio interact with the kids, he was a natural whether he knew it or not. He was generally patient except in the rare instance when he thought they might be in danger.

It was Friday and it had only been four days since they told their friends about the baby. It felt like a whirlwind, Sylvie had decided to go ahead and make the leap and move in with Antonio, it just felt right. He took really good care of her and she was there all day anyway and she had the kids to keep her company when they got home from school. Antonio, Kelly, and Matt were moving her over the weekend but most of her stuff was going to storage. The apartment was only three bedrooms and was a simple layout with not much in space. They needed a bigger place and she was hoping they would be able to find a townhouse in their price range quickly; they were on a time crunch. They wouldn't be able to close on it before the baby arrived but they could at least be in process so they could move shortly after it was here.

The doctor walked in and shut the door bringing Sylvie out of her thoughts. "Mrs. Brett, I'm doctor Kinney, how are you feeling today?"

"Better than I was, I'm gaining weight and I don't feel as worn down I guess." She was trying to be honest, she had been feeling better.

"I looked over your chart from the hospital and it sounds like you've had a pretty crappy last six months, I'm sorry about that. Have you seen the nutritionist they set you up with?" Sylvie nodded. "Yes, I saw her last week, I'm following her nutrition plan, she said she was going to have it sent over here" the doctor checked the chart and nodded that it was in fact in the file.

"Well, first things first, I am going to need to do a pelvic exam, so if your daughter and husband" he motioned to Eva and Antonio "could step out, we can get started." No one corrected the doctor and as far as Sylvie was concerned Eva was a daughter, it was her child's sister and she didn't see the difference, she was adopted and knew blood didn't always make family.

Antonio squeezed Sylvie's hand "We'll be right outside, will you be okay?" she nodded and he lead Eva out the door.

Several minutes later the doctor opened the door and motioned for Eva and Antonio to come back in. "Who's ready to see a baby?" the doctor excitedly asked the room.

Eva squealed, "I can't wait" she was so excited she could barely contain herself.

The ultrasound tech made her way into the room and set down at the machine. She had Sylvie raise her gown and she put gel on her stomach. The tech grabbed the wand and turned the monitor so that everyone could see. She started pushing and moving the wand around all over and all of a sudden a heartbeat filled the room,

Sylvie couldn't contain her emotions and tears fell down her cheeks. Antonio noticed and he leaned down and kissed her forehead. She was staring up at the monitor trying to make out what she was seeing while the tech took all kinds of measurement and kept listing them off to the doctor.

"Okay measurements are done, who wants to see a good full view of this baby?" and she moved the wand and zoomed out and all of a sudden the full baby came into view.

Eva just stared at the ultrasound in awe; she knew she was in love before it was even born. Tonio squeezed Sylvie's hand a little tighter, she was unaware that this was the first time he was able to see one of his children at their first sonogram. He had always been working before and he was a new cop and couldn't afford to take time off for this stuff.

"So are we finding out the sex or do you already know?" Antonio spoke up, "We don't know yet but we're really anxious to find out" he nodded at Sylvie and she nodded at the tech.

The tech looked over at Eva and asked, "So you want a baby brother or sister? I'm betting a sister right? Girls usually want sisters." Eva was nodding wildly, smiling the biggest smile she's ever done, and in that moment she looked more like she was eight instead of eighteen, and the tech laughed, "Well honey, you got you're wish, congratulations". Eva almost lost her mind, she started crying and Antonio pulled her into a hug and pulled her down to Sylvie who was also crying and they all three just sat there for a moment hugging each other.

The tech left the room and the doctor asked if they could wait a couple minutes while he checked over the ultrasound.

Antonio leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers and whispered so only she could hear, "Thank you, I don't care what we name her as long as she has your eyes, strength, compassion, and bravery, I love you so damn much." Sylvie grabbed his face and pulled him down into a long kiss. Letting go she whispered, "I love you too." Eva was watching them from the chair in the corner; they were completely oblivious to her like they were in their own little world. She admired how in love they were and hoped she found love like that one day.

The doctor came back in with a worried look on her face. "The good news is she is proportional and she doesn't have any deformities, the concerning news is her size. She is measuring at about twenty to twenty-one weeks gestation she should be closer to twenty-five weeks but she has grown. In the hospital almost three weeks ago she was closer to sixteen weeks, so I'm hopeful she will catch up. I know you lost about twenty pounds when you first got pregnant right?" Sylvie nodded; she was scared what this would mean for the baby.

"The morning sickness really reeked havoc on the both of you, that coupled with the anemia and pneumonia set both of you up for failure, frankly, I think it's a miracle that you and that baby survived relatively unscathed, cause you could have very easily lost the baby and died yourself. Never let being sick go on for that long again, you need to make sure you're taking good care of yourself, it looks like you have a family that really loves and needs you."

Sylvie was crying she knew her doctor was right, Sylvie was sitting on the bed her back to Antonio and she could feel him move close and press himself up against her back she leaned into him seeking comfort.

"So what about her size? What if she doesn't catch up?" Antonio was worried and wanted to know what they could do to get her to a healthy weight.

"I'm not going to panic over it yet, Sylvie you need to keep seeing the nutritionist and make sure you are gaining enough weight. Keep taking your pre-natal and nausea meds, I don't want you vomiting at all, if you need a stronger script I can get that for you" Sylvie nodded her head, "I agree with the hospital doctors, bed rest, light, no work, no exercising, just relax and I will see you back every two weeks to check your iron and hemoglobin and for measurements, when we're about 6 weeks out from delivery, if she isn't where I like we will find alternative methods to try and get her there, do you have any other questions?" Sylvie said she didn't have any questions at the moment but would bring some to her next appointment if she thought of any. They thanked the doctor and Sylvie got dressed, so they could go grab some lunch with Gabby and Antonio's mom and share the news.


	12. Chapter 12

Sylvie was walking up the stairs to beautiful Townhome but was so exhausted she couldn't even appreciate it. She set on the stairs and waited. Diego came running out of the house. "Dad sent me to check on you, do you need help?" Sylvie had just hit 34 weeks; she felt like a house, even though she only looked about six months pregnant, she was out of breath. The doctors were having trouble keeping her iron levels and hemoglobin in normal range and she had had pneumonia twice in the last ten weeks which meant she was exhausted and short of breathe a lot and paired with the baby taking up residence under her rib cage she was miserable.

"I'm okay honey, can you just ask dad to come here please." Sylvie tried to talk normally so she didn't scare Diego. She couldn't move, she didn't even think she could make it back to the truck, this was their third house today and she was positive she had over done it.

"Babe, what's wrong?" Antonio stooped down next to her and grabbed her wrist, instinctively checking her pulse, Gabby had taught him how after the second or third scare she'd had. He worried constantly about her; it terrified him to leave her home alone while he was at work. She frequently woke up gasping for air in the middle of the night. Gabby spent every day she was off shift with Sylvie to babysit her and his mom would come over on days when neither could be there.

"I'm done…can't breath…can't walk…need to go home" she was trying to catch her breath between statements. He scooped her up and carried her to the truck.

"Give me a minute, I gotta get Diego and let the realtor know we're leaving." He ran back toward the house.

"I'm going to call the OB emergency number and see what the nurse says to do." Antonio pulled out his phone and hit the number. Sylvie started to protest but gave up immediately. Antonio pulled onto the side of the road and was having a conversation with the after hours reception nurse. "They said take you to the Emergency Room" Sylvie nodded still unable to catch her breathe.

Antonio pulled back out into traffic and hit his lights and sirens on his truck. He called dispatch and let them know he was coming in with sirens and was transporting a patient. He pulled up into the ambulance bay and Dr. Choi and Maggie were waiting for them with a wheelchair. Antonio jumped out and helped get her out of the truck, he jumped back in the truck and moved it up a little and told Maggie he was leaving it there, she nodded at him letting him know it was fine.

They got Sylvie into a room got her on oxygen and started an IV for fluids, OB came down to check her and cleared her. Whatever was happening didn't involve the baby. "We need to stop meeting like this, you know you can just ask me to hang out at Molly's if you wanna see me that bad" Dr. Choi joked with Sylvie, she smiled at him through her mask. "I….like…seeing…you…in….your…scrubs…I ….think….they're…sexy" she teased back gasping between each word. This was the eighth time Sylvie had been in the emergency room in the last ten weeks. Twice for Pneumonia, three times for breathing problems, twice for fatigue, and now today, she was guessing pneumonia again, she was on a roll she thought. "Well let me check you out so we can figure out what's going on this time…at least we know it's not the babyhe said putting his hand on her stomach.

April walked in with a breathing treatment, "Here's the albuterol, do you want her to start it now or wait?" she asked the doctor. "Go ahead, no sense in wasting time"

"So what is it this time Ethan?" Antonio asked returning from taking Diego to the waiting room to wait for Antonio's mom to pick him up.

"Pretty sure it's pneumonia again, I had April start the nebulizer and I'm going to run a couple more tests to confirm but I'm pretty confident so I'm ordering the antibiotics right now, so we can get you out of here asap." Antonio thanked Dr. Choi and set in the chair next to Sylvie and grabbed her hand.

"Hey Sylvie, you're a paramedic remember that an O2 sat of 87 will make you hypoxic, you need to will your self above a 92." She tried to laugh; she knew Ethan was joking with her.

"Antonio can I talk to you in the hall?" he got up and followed Dr. Choi to the hall, Sylvie was falling asleep.

"If she can't stay stable we're going to have to admit her for a longer period of time to try to get this pneumonia under control, this is the third time she's had it in 10 weeks. I'm going to write you a prescription for an O2 monitor and I need it to be constantly monitored, if it falls below 92 again, you get her here fast and we're going to keep her. I'm also going to get her set up with an oxygen machine for home, she is going to need to be on oxygen constantly."

Antonio was starting to get used to this routine, he pulled out his phone and started texting Gabby letting her know what was going on. He then texted Voight and let him know not to call him in for anything, it was pretty much a rule that Antonio didn't get called in after hours unless it was life or death at this point but he wanted to let Voight know what was going on. He started flipping through apps on his phone, trying to find something to entertain himself.

There was a knock at the door and Antonio looked up, it was Dr. Kinney, Sylvie's OB and Dr. Choi. "Hey Antonio, Dr. Kinney just happened to be in the hospital delivering a baby and we filled her in on what is happening today" Antonio nodded his head.

"Can we go down to a meeting room and talk?" Dr. Choi led them out of the room into a room with a table and chairs. "Okay so this is where we're at, your daughter is still measuring two weeks small, it's not a huge concern, I think she's big enough that if she was born today she would be just fine, I would only worry about her lungs." Antonio was confused. "She not being delivered today right?" he asked concerned.

"No, but I do want to try to give her two more weeks, load her up on steroids for her lungs and deliver her then, I think Sylvie has been through enough at this point and I'm scared that if she was to go into labor and she had pneumonia, there might be some major complications or if her 02 sats fall too low again and no one catches it in time she could die, I'm not willing to risk it." Antonio's head was spinning.

"We're going to schedule a C-section for two weeks from yesterday, I don't think it's wise to induce her, I think we just need to get the baby out as soon as possible." Antonio didn't know what to say, "Are you sending her home today or admitting her?"

"She can go home as long as we get her back above 92 but she needs to be constantly monitored, there's an alarm on the 02 monitor that needs to be set for 92 and if it drops she needs to be brought straight here and she's going to go up for an emergency C-section, I think we've reached critical point, do you understand?" Antonio nodded his head, he knew Sylvie was extremely sick but they were actually talking death, he was terrified.

He made his way back to her room and set next to her bed, she was sound asleep, he leaned into her stomach and started talking to the baby, he generally only did this in the confines of their home but he thought this a was a conversation he needed to have with his daughter.

"Sophie baby, it's daddy," he was whispering trying not to wake Sylvie. "I need you to get big and strong really fast, mommy is really sick and they need to take you out early so nothing bad happens to either one of you, I don't think I could survive if something happened to one of you" he felt fingers run through is hair, he looked up to see Sylvie staring at him.

"Hey baby, do you feel any better?" she gave him a thumbs up. "Dr. Kinney came to talk to me, you think you're well enough to talk right now or do you want to wait till later?" she pulled her mask down and said "now is good".

"They're scheduling you for a C-section in two weeks." She shook her head no "it's too early, she's too small" she breathed heavily.

"They're really concerned about you, they said you both could die if they don't deliver her. They're going to load her up on steroids and try to get her lungs to mature faster, she said she isn't concerned with her weight that she will be just fine."

She pulled her mask down again. "What do you think?" he leaned back in the chair, sighed heavily, and rubbed his palms down his face. "I think if I lost you, I couldn't live anymore and that if I had to see you lose her, it would destroy both of us. You have been sick for eight and a half months, you've given up your life and your health for her, you have to be baby sat everyday and I haven't slept in weeks because I lay there listening to you breathe because you stop all the time." She just stared at him, she knew he was right. She took her mask down and whispered okay.

He picked her hand up and kissed the back of it. "They are putting you on an 02 monitor that needs to be constantly monitored and an oxygen machine, Ethan said there's an alarm on it and he wants you brought in if it drops below 92. If that happens they are doing an emergency C-section." She groaned knowing that was a definite possibility. "When can I go home?" she just wanted to go to her own bed, she was exhausted. "We're just waiting on test result, antibiotics, and your sats need to be above 92."


	13. Chapter 13

Sylvie had made it the entire two weeks without any major hiccups and they were going to deliver the baby first thing in the morning. The whole family was a nervous wreck. Gabby had taken furlough and moved in with Antonio and Sylvie to watch over Sylvie 24/7, Antonio had told her she really didn't need to but in truth they both felt better knowing a paramedic was in charge of her care. Gabby was actually sleeping in bed with Sylvie at night and Antonio moved to the floor on Sylvie's side of the bed, he just needed to be close to her.

"I bet Matt will be glad to have his wife back tomorrow but I'm sure going to miss having a wife to do everything for me" Sylvie joked.

"Ha, Ha, Ha, you're so funny Brett" Gabby teased back. " I need to take a shower, you think you can stay alive for 10 minutes?" Sylvie waved her off.

Sylvie sat there for about five minutes trying to will herself to get up to put her plate in the sink; she had just stood up when she heard a knock at the door. She took her oxygen off and set it to the side. She opened the door to find Laura standing on the other side.

Laura gave her a disgusted look and pushed her way inside, "What are you doing here? Where is Antonio?" It looked like bitchy Laura was out to play. "Umm…I live here, what do you need Laura?" Sylvie was not in the mood for this. "Since when? The kids haven't said anything" Sylvie sighed, "Maybe cause it's none of your business, now can you please leave, I'll tell Tonio you stopped by." Sylvie really needed to sit down.

Laura moved further into the apartment towards the kitchen "Come on Laura, I'm not in the mood for this right now, can you please leave?" Laura chuckled "You want me to leave my kids home?" Sylvie let out a giant sigh and moved toward the dining room to try to put at least a chair between her and Laura.

"Look I don't feel good, the kids aren't here and it's Thursday, Tonio is obliviously at work so can you please leave?" Laura moved to stand right in front of Sylvie and got in her face "My kids live here so everything that happens here is my business, this my family you're playing house with just remember that."

Sylvie went to step around Laura to get away from her when Laura tripped her and she fell face first into the floor, her face hitting the coffee table on the way down. Gabby had just walked into the room and witnessed the whole thing; she ran to Sylvie and rolled her over.

"I'm okay, I'm okay, really" Sylvie was trying to convince Gabby. Laura gave a short snort, "She's fine, she barely fell."

Gabby stood up ready to attack "She's fucking pregnant you moron, she's having the baby tomorrow." Gabby was in her face pushing her up against the wall with her body. Laura looked at Sylvie's stomach and noticed she was wearing a big shirt that did a good job at hiding her stomach unless you knew, she wasn't very big but she could definitely tell she was pregnant. Laura's face got a look of horror, "Oh god, I'm sorry, I didn't know" she was trying to apologize knowing that she was in serious trouble.

Gabby was already on the phone with Antonio. "You need to get home now, Laura's here, I'm not letting her leave…she tripped Sylvie and she fell face first into the floor hard…yeah I think she's okay…Sylvie check your vitals and put your oxygen back on…yeah uh huh…yeah…no send a squad car over too…okay, hurry."

Laura tried to push her way past Gabby but being a trained firefighter and boxer made Gabby a lot stronger than she appeared. "Let me go" she was begging, knowing she was about to be arrested.

"No, your crazy ass is going to sit right there in that chair and not move while I go and check on Sylvie and if you try to move, I will break your leg." She gave Laura a 'I'm not fucking playing' look and Laura set down.

Sylvie was slightly tachycardic but that was normal for her anymore, otherwise she appeared fine just a big mark on her cheek, that was going to leave a nasty bruise where she hit the leg of the coffee table.

"I told you I'm okay and the baby is okay, she's moving." Antonio barreled through the door, he must have been close Gabby thought. Gabby bolted up to block him, she knew he would never hit Laura but she still wanted to be between them.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you fucking insane?" he was screaming, fighting to get past Gabby. "Antonio, Antonio, listen to me, look over at Sylvie" he was pissed, Gabby was trying to push his head toward Sylvie as he was staring Laura down; he finally glanced at her and relaxed a little. "Calm down, don't look at Laura don't even talk to her, focus on Sylvie." Gabby knew she needed to get him calmed down.

Patrol walked in several minutes behind Antonio and asked what had happened, Antonio flashed his badge and explained he was Intelligence and this was his house.

Sylvie and Gabby explained what happened to the officers and Laura shockingly backed up their story but kept apologizing saying she wouldn't have done it if had known she was pregnant, that they should have told her. They handcuffed Laura and led her out of the apartment with directions to take her down to the 21st and give her to Platt.

Antonio set on the coffee table across from Sylvie and touched the new bruise on her face, "I'm sorry, I didn't know she was coming over. She's only been here once since I moved in." he kissed her on the forehead. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you need something?" she shook her head "it's not your fault, don't blame yourself, I'm fine."

She leaned forward to hug him; he put his arms around her neck and pulled her head up so they were forehead to forehead. He whispered, "I don't deserve you".

Sylvie looked him in the eye and whispered, "You deserve everything" and leaned in and placed a simple kiss on his lips.

Gabby had been watching but felt like she was intruding on a private moment and went to the bedroom.

As soon as he knew Sylvie was situated and she was fine he headed back toward District. He stormed through the front doors and straight up to the bullpen, knocking into several officers that were in his way. Everyone in the building knew something had happened but no one was brave enough to ask fearing the wrath of Detective Dawson.

He stormed straight into Voight's office and slammed the door. "Watch it Bro, don't break the glass" Antonio ignored Voight, he started pacing back and forth. "Have I told you before that my ex-wife is certifiable?" Voight just stared at him knowing he needed to vent.

"She tripped Sylvie, she has a big bruise on her face but she's fine, who the fuck trips a woman who is nine months pregnant? I just don't fucking get it, she shows no interest in the kids for months and all of a sudden she is at the door, the day before my daughter is supposed to be born and she is attacking Sylvie. What the fuck am I supposed to do? I can't fucking reason with her. I can't kill her. Tell me what the fuck am I supposed to do?" He looked at Voight and threw his hands up in the air.

"She's downstairs right now in holding, I really want to go down there and wring her fucking neck. Why can't she just leave us the fuck alone, the kids are happy, hell I'm happy but NO she can't stand that, she has to show up and try to spread her particular brand of crazy all around and try to make everyone miserable in the process." Antonio was yelling and everyone in the bullpen could hear. That group had never been so quiet before, they were stunned at the revelations that were coming out of Antonio's mouth.

Kim got up from her desk and walked towards Voight's office. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Adam warned from his desk. She gave him a look and knocked on the door. "Come in Burgess, shut the door" Voight instructed her. The others all looked at each other.

"Here boss, it's signed by the judge all good to go" Kim handed the packet over to Voight and turned and looked at Antonio "I'm so sorry, if you need anything I'm here for you." Squeezing his shoulder. She turned to open the door and Antonio grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug, he had never actually initiated any of their hugs and it took her off guard. "Thanks for being my partner" he released her and she nodded at him and left out the door.

Voight handed the packet over to Antonio, "Here I think this might be what you need, it's already taken care of thanks to Burgess, she worked fast on it, and we both called in a few favors." Antonio opened it and started to flip through. He looked at Voight amazed "How did you get this so fast?" he just kept flipping back through.

"I told you anything you needed I would make it happen." Antonio was staring down at a restraining order that was good for two years for himself, Sylvie, the baby, and Eva against Laura. Plus there was a new custody agreement giving him sole legal and physical custody of Diego with supervised visits for Laura twice a month but only if Diego wanted to. A weight was lifted off his shoulders knowing that Sylvie wouldn't have to deal with Laura anytime soon.

"Thanks Hank, I don't know how to thank you" Voight scoffed "I never asked you to… you're family"

He left Voight's office papers in hand and went straight to Kim's desk and pulled her up into another hug. Voight had stuck Kim on it as soon as Laura was brought in and he was debriefed on what had happened. "You're the best partner I've ever had" he said out loud he knew the entire unit could hear, he just didn't care, they needed to know she was his favorite. "You too, Tonio" she responded.

Antonio decided to make his way down to holding. He found Laura in a cell.

As soon as she saw him she jumped up to plead her case, "I'm sorry Antonio, I didn't know she was pregnant I swear."

He stepped close to the bars, "Shut up Laura, I've been letting you do whatever you want for years, just so YOU wouldn't get hurt, when the entire time you have been hurting me, the kids, Sylvie, everyone. It stops today, I've moved on, I'm happy, the kids are happy, they will have a new sister tomorrow, they adore Sylvie, she treats them with respect, and includes them in our lives, something you stop doing every time you find a new boyfriend. I also have a restraining order prohibiting you from contacting any of us. And a new custody agreement for Diego, the judge gave me sole legal and physical, you get two supervised visits a month but only if Diego wants to see you." He was holding the paperwork up.

"You can't do that" she was crying. Antonio started screaming, not caring who could hear, "Can't?! Can't?!, No, I can and I did! Laura it's done, the judge signed it."

He shoved his finger in her face "You came into my house, Sylvie's house and picked a fight with my wife who is nine months pregnant and so sick she can barely breath or stand most days, she's on an oxygen machine and Gabby has moved in to babysit her because it's too dangerous for her to be alone at all. She is literally risking her life for our child, so much so that they are taking the baby a month early because they think she will die if she's pregnant any longer."

Antonio felt like his whole body was going to explode. "And you attacked her, someone who is unable to defend herself right now, and you hurt her. She has a giant bruise on her face, and you could have hurt the baby, why, because of some jealousy bullshit you created." He backed up a little and crossed his arms on his chest. "Sylvie doesn't even want to press charges, made me promise you won't get in trouble" he laughed at the absurdity of not pressing charges, "I told her she needed to, but she says you're Eva and Diego's mom and she thinks you deserve respect for that roll, because that's the type of person she is, she cares about you because you are their mom and she loves them!" He was pretty sure the entire district could hear him screaming, so much for his personal life being private.

Laura went silent for a minute "Wife?" Antonio sighed "Yes, wife." He didn't elaborate.

"Look Laura" he said exasperated, his anger starting to dissipate, "I don't want to hurt you, really it's the last thing I want to do, I fell in love with you when we were 16 years old, I will always love you on some level because you're the mother of my children but I'm not in love with you anymore, it's over and you're the one who ended it, I tried to work it out but you left, so you have no one to blame but yourself." He sighed he was trying not cry from the frustration; he wished he had something he could hit right then.

"I would say I'm sorry I fell in love with someone else but I'm not, she is the best person I have ever met and she is also the mother of my child. I'm sorry you can't find happiness and you can't move on but you need to find a way or the kids are always going to suffer and we will keep doing this stupid little dance forever." She nodded her head at him.

"Antonio, can I ask you a question, please?" she asked pleadingly through tears. He motioned for her to ask. "Are the kids excited for their sister?" He nodded his head. "Very" he sighed, he needed out of there.

"Can I ask one more?" He motioned her again. "What is her name?" He sighed hoping he wouldn't regret this "Sophia Louise Dawson" he turned to leave, exhausted from the conversation.

"Hold on Tony" he turned to face her again "I'm really am sorry, you have to know I would have never intentionally hurt a baby or a child, especially your child, Diego and Eva's sister" he turned to leave again not wanting to face her any longer, "I know you wouldn't, I know you're not a horrible person and I believe you when you say you didn't know, and that you wouldn't have put your hands on her if you had known but I'm done Laura, I can't do this anymore" he walked quickly up the stairs.

Antonio dragged himself all the way back up to the bullpen and sat at his desk across from Kim. He was exhausted. Kim gave him a sympathetic look; "I'm fine." He sounded drained.

"Yeah, okay tough guy and just in case you're lying, if you need to talk I'm here to listen." He just stared at her, he knew she meant it, she had his back no questions asked, he could murder someone and she was the person he would call to get rid of the body, he trusted her explicitly. She's one of the kindest and fiercest women he knows and she has morals that match his, they truly were meant to be partners. "Thanks" he mouthed at her and she nodded her head and went back to her work.

He wasn't going to get any work done and after today, he was out for eight weeks, he had taken paternity leave so he could take care of Sylvie and the baby. They had already been told the baby would probably be in the NICU for two or three weeks depending on complications that presented when she was born, her lungs being the biggest concern.

His mind started to wander. The day after the doctors scheduled the C-section two weeks ago, Sylvie was terrified and so was he, "What if something happens to me? You can't take care of a newborn and work." Antonio didn't like where this conversation was going.

"Nothing is going to happen, I promise, that's the whole point of the C-section." She was crying and he didn't know what to do. "What if she never gets to meet me? She could grow up without a mom!" he pulled her into a hug and just held her on the couch, he didn't know what to say, it was a real possibility the doctors had confirmed it. He just continued to stroke her hair and draw circles on her back trying to comfort her.

"She may never have the chance to have the same last name as me, oh god, if something happens to me you'll have to fight for custody of your own daughter." He remained quiet thoughts racing through his head. "We can fix the name part" she pulled her head back to look at him. She nodded her head; she understood what he was saying. Sylvie went to go take a shower while he took out his phone and called Gabby and Severide. He never even proposed, never asked the question he just implied it and within three hours they were married. The only people who were present were the kids and Gabby and Severide as witnesses. They didn't even have rings; they agreed they would save that for a later time.

Adam dropped a file on his desk and brought him out of his thoughts "What the hell man?" it startled him "Sorry brother it was louder than I thought, can you look it over it real quick?" He grabbed the file and opened it, not really in the mood to do any work. He thumbed through it and got up to give it back to Adam and then walked back to the vending machines, he needed caffeine.

Adam approached him, "I know you've had it rough lately and you're off in your own little world, and I get that completely but if you need someone to talk to, I'm here, always, you're my brother, I'll always have your back. If you need to let off some steam I'm willing to spar with you and let you beat the crap out of me too. I guess what I'm trying to say is I love you, brother." Adam was squeezing Antonio's shoulder and Antonio went in for a hug and started crying, he finally broke. Adam looked around to make sure no one was around and dragged him over to the locker room and locked the door behind him. He sat Antonio on a bench and just let him cry into his shoulder as he was crouched down in front of him.

Adam didn't say a word, didn't try to comfort him he just let him cry for a solid five minutes. When he stopped he still clung to Adam his arms wrapped around his neck like he was hanging on for dear life. Adam didn't attempt to move he just set completely still waiting for Antonio to make the first move, he knew he was in uncharted territory with Antonio and didn't want to spook him, he knew he needed this. Antonio pulled back away from him and wiped his face with is palms. "I might lose her, I can't lose her, it will destroy me," he said softly. Adam just kept looking at him.

"It's all so fucked up, how does a person like Sylvie end up with these problems, we go after the scum of Chicago everyday and they are perfectly fine, it doesn't make any fucking sense you know. I haven't slept in months, she stops breathing in the night, it scares the shit out of me, do you know what it's like to hear someone you love stop breathing? Its pure panic, that's my mind set ninety-five percent of the time anymore, pure panic." He stopped and just stared at Adam for a minute. "We got married last week and not because it was a happy joyous occasion, no it was because we were scared, we haven't even told anyone yet, she's was terrified Sophia will never get to meet her and that they will never have the same last name, and that I would have to fight for Sophia if something happened to her."

Adam moved to set on the bench opposite Antonio. "I'm sorry man, I wish I knew what to say to make it better but I don't think there is anything. I do wanna say Congrats though, cause you got married and that is a happy joyous occasion, no matter the circumstances you're in. I just wish that tomorrow could be here so you can finally breathe and relax when everything is okay."

Antonio had never confided in Adam before, he was the goofy, rowdy teenager of the group and Antonio usually felt like he was parenting Adam trying to calm him down and make sure he doesn't get himself killed. He's a hot head and likes to jump the gun and really has no respect for rules, he is one hundred percent Voight's protégé. But under it all he was a genuine person who really cares deeply for everyone on their team, he would take a bullet for any of them and Kim loved him, so there had to be something good there.

"Thanks for letting me…umm…you know" Antonio gestured to Adams shoulder. "No problem, you needed to, it's okay." Adam stood up to leave and Antonio followed pulling Adam in for a hug, "I love you too brother."


	14. Chapter 14

Sleeping just was not on the agenda for tonight, it was midnight and they had to be up at 4:30 to make it to Med by 5am for the C-section. Antonio just lay there listening to Sylvie's breathing next to him. The sound of her breathing machine made a clicking noise every time she took a breath, it was weirdly comforting because he knew she was getting the air she needed. She was curled up into his side having only just fallen asleep a half hour earlier, she was exhausted and had barely kept her eyes open for as long as she did. Gabby and Antonio kept trying to get her to go to bed but she felt bad for them doing all the work to make sure everything that they would need was packed. Gabby had decided to move to the couch for the night giving Antonio and Sylvie privacy so they could be alone before the baby came.

They arrived at the hospital just before five and checked in. "Okay, Sylvie, we're going to take you to pre-op and your sister and husband will come in right before we start the surgery, we will start at six and you will meet your little girl a couple of moments later." Sylvie nodded and Antonio moved up by her head, he leaned down and put his forehead to hers and whispered "You got this, I'll see you in there, after we leave I'll come back when she's situated, I promise." She nodded her head and reached up to kiss him. "I love you so damn much, you know that right?" she nodded again. "I love you too. "

They had a plan for in the OR, Antonio was staying with the baby after she was out and would follow her to the NICU and Gabby was staying with Sylvie. Gabby stood out of the way in the operating room while they were making the incisions and trying to deliver the baby. She let Antonio and Sylvie have that moment alone together, letting him reassure and comfort her, she knew it was a privilege to be in there and as much as she wanted to be involved in cooing over the baby and holding her when she's born, she knew that was not her place here, her only job was to take care of and protect Sylvie, everything else would come later.

The baby was out and the doctor handed her off to the nurse who took her straight to the warmer to work on her. Antonio kissed Sylvie on the head and spun around to focus his attention where it was needed. Gabby moved in and set down next to Sylvie's head. "Can you go look and take a picture really quick?" Sylvie's teeth were chattering. "Just a few more minutes and I will, I haven't heard her cry yet, let them get her crying first." Sylvie just stared at Gabby waiting.

Antonio appeared, "She's breathing, just not crying, they said APGAR or something is a 6 at one minute. She is 4 lbs 2 oz, she's beautiful" Gabby exhaled relieved, "A six is good in a preemie wait till the 5 minute one, I'll bet she's normal." Antonio had taken a picture and handed his phone to Gabby. Gabby held the phone up so Sylvie could see. "She's so little, she looks just like you, Tonio" Tears started to run down Sylvie's cheeks. "Hey come on sis you're a Dawson now we don't cry, we're tough, look Sophie's okay, you're okay, we made it through this, the nightmare is over." Gabby tried to reassure her.

Antonio was just standing there staring at this tiny baby in the warmer, the doctors and nurses were poking and prodding her and she didn't cry once, she just laid there and took it, she locked eyes with him and just held his gaze for what seemed like eternity. He knew in that moment that she owned his heart and he would move heaven and earth to make sure she was the happiest little girl on the planet, she had her mother's big bright eyes, there was no resisting her.

The doctor ushered him forward, "She doesn't appear to have any complications and she's breathing on her own and it looks like she put on a few more ounces the last couple of days. Her 5 minute APGAR was an 8, we couldn't of asked for better, it means she's completely healthy, do you want to hold her?" he looked at the doctor bewildered "Doesn't she need to go to the NICU, she's so tiny, why isn't she crying?" the doctor nodded,

"We will take her to the NICU to monitor her for the day but if she does good there is a real possibility that she may go home when your wife does, as for the crying some babies just don't cry right away but don't worry she'll show you how she can use them lungs soon enough" the doctor chuckled "she seems content." Antonio couldn't help the grin on his face as he stared at his daughter. "You can hold her and take her to your wife" the nurse reached down and picked her up and placed her in Antonio's arms, he just stared at her he couldn't believe how small she was, even wrapped in blankets she didn't feel like anything in his arms. Diego and Eva were both over eight pounds, he didn't know what to do with something so tiny.

"You wanna meet your mama?" she just continued to stare at him.

He walked over carefully to Sylvie, Gabby got up out of the seat, he sat down and held her up so Sylvie could see her. "Hey my sweet girl, I'm your mommy" she raised her head up to give her a kiss on the cheek. Tonio leaned down and placed his forehead on the side of her head and whispered in Sylvie's ear so only she could hear, "you remember what I said to you the first time we saw her on the ultrasound" Sylvie nodded her head "She has your eyes, your strength, your bravery, and I'm going to assume your compassion, thank you for giving me exactly what I wanted" he leaned forward and kissed her on the lips.

"Doc said her 5 minute APGAR was an 8, that she's perfectly healthy and she may be able to leave when you get released." Gabby let out a deep breath of relief and crouched down thanking the lord. "She hasn't cried once, the doctor said she is just content, nothing is wrong with her, her vitals are good" the nurse came over to let them know they were going to move Sophia out of the room now. Antonio held the baby up again so Sylvie could kiss her "I love you baby, I'll see you soon." He handed her to a nurse and they went out the door to the NICU.

Sylvie was nervous as she set in her hospital bed legs spread apart and this tiny baby laying there, she had undressed her completely so he could look her over, she counted her fingers and toes and rubbed the bottom of her tiny feet. She had never held a baby so little and the hospital was sending her home with one in a couple of hours.

"It'll be okay Sylvie, you're going to be great and Gabby is out right now buying a preemie car seat and stocking up on diapers and preemie clothes." Sophie was four days old and had lost a little weight so she was currently 3lbs. 15oz. the doctors reassured her the weight loss was normal and that she would start to put weight on over the next few weeks. Sylvie was skeptical but she had no choice she was bringing a miniature baby home.

"I don't know, Tonio I've never done this before, and I'm still not completely better." She pulled a diaper out and was putting it on her trying to get her dressed to take her home.

"That's why I'm here, to take care of you guys and so you can heal from having her and from being sick, so stop worrying." Antonio was more at ease, Sylvie had to have a blood transfusion after surgery but her iron and hemoglobin had somewhat normalized and weren't dropping like they were before.

"I'm just glad I can breathe again, I never want to feel like that again, it's horrible."

Antonio just sat there staring at her lost in thought from her last comment. She said she wanted more kids but he didn't think he was willing to put her through that again even if she wanted to risk it, there was no guarantee that she wouldn't have the same complications. And he didn't think he could survive watching her like that again, she almost died trying to have this one.

"Tonio, what's on your mind, where you at?" Sylvie was looking at him worriedly. "Nothing baby, I'm just tired and I'm thinking about Diego and Eva when they were first born." He smiled at her and stood up to grab the baby from her.

"Come here, do you wanna lay on daddy, I think I need you to lay on me" returning to the recliner, he laid her on his chest and put a blanket over her. Kicking the recliner out laying it all the way back with one arm behind his head, he just stared at the ceiling, thanking god everything turned out okay.

"Do you think it's weird she hardly ever cries?" Antonio asked still staring at the ceiling; she shook her head, "No, I just think she knows she's loved." Antonio didn't respond, he was exhausted and the silence in the room was welcoming, he couldn't remember the last time he was able to be alone with Sylvie in complete silence.

Sylvie got up to use the restroom, her incision was still very sore but she was able to move around better. When she came back the room was quiet and she could hear Antonio breathing, he was asleep with Sophia on his chest. She was glad he was finally able to sleep, he hadn't gotten a full night sleep in months and she felt horrible about it. He constantly worried about her and she couldn't wait until she was better so he could relax. Sylvie grabbed her phone and snapped a couple of pics of the two of them then climbed back in bed. She had already packed and organized everything she could.

They had a ton of stuffed animals and flower arrangements on the window ledge, floor, and dresser that she had no clue what she was going to do with. She was pretty sure they had received gifts and flowers from damn near every district house and firehouse in the city, it was ridiculous but apparently everyone knew how sick Sylvie was and they wanted to do their part. It was nice to know how much they were cared about from both sides.

Sylvie texted Gabby to find out where she was and to tell her to be quiet when she came in because Antonio had finally fallen asleep and she wanted to let him get as much as he could. She looked around the room, she had to be quiet so there was nothing to do, and she was bored. She guessed going home probably wasn't such a bad idea.

It was six before they were finally loading the truck to go home, Sylvie was exhausted and really just wanted a shower and to lay in her own bed. Gabby followed them home but she was no longer staying, she had been back home since the baby was born. "I'm going to carry you up the steps" Antonio looked over at Sylvie in the truck. "I can make it up the steps just fine" he shook his head. "It's three flights and you just had surgery, it took you five minutes and I ended up lifting you into the truck, you don't need to climb stairs, Gabby can carry Sophia up." She looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Fine but only because I'm exhausted and don't want to argue about it."

Antonio placed Sylvie down gently right in front of the door and unlocked it, when Diego heard the door unlock he came out to greet them, "Sylvie" Diego wrapped his arms around her gently and hugged her, she hugged him back. "I'm glad your home, where's Sophia?" She pointed to the couch where the car seat was and he went over and started talking to her.

"Can you go help dad and Tia get stuff out of the truck and car? There's a lot." Eva wasn't home yet she had a study group for a test that was coming up so she was at the library.

She unhooked Sophia from her car seat and carried her to the bedroom and laid her on the bed so she could get ready for a shower. "I need you to be good while I'm in the shower cause daddy, Tia, and brother are busy and I really need a shower okay?" She looked down at her daughter with her wavy brown hair, tan skin, and big blue eyes and smiled. Sophia just stared up at her with those giant blue eyes.

When she finished her shower Antonio was laying on the bed holding Sophia, when he saw her he stood and laid her back on the bed and went to Sylvie. "You feel better?" she laughed. "Actually yeah for the first time in a long time I do." He put his forehead on hers and wrapped his arms around her neck and they both just stood there with their eyes closed finally he broke the silence "thank you." It was simple but Sylvie knew what he meant. She leaned forward and kissed him then went back to just holding on to him.

Gabby had came down the hallway to bring Sylvie's bag to the room so she could unpack it. She stopped in the doorway when she saw Antonio and Sylvie touching foreheads, she didn't want them to see her and she turned and went back into the living room. Eva had just got home and was searching the fridge for something to eat.

"Eva can I ask you a question?" Eva stood up to face her. "Yeah sure what is it?" Gabby hesitated, maybe it was none of her business, but it was driving her nuts. "Your dad and Sylvie, do they always touch foreheads and hold on to each other." She didn't know how else to explain it. Eva looked at her odd and chuckled "Yeah, I call it their triangle of solitude, they do it when they think no one is paying attention and they whisper at each other too, they've always done it since they first started dating, I think it's adorable, they are completely oblivious to everyone around them." Gabby laughed "I've noticed, I'm surprised I didn't catch on before but I've seen it a lot over the past couple weeks and it was driving me crazy wondering if I was the only one who noticed."

Eva grabbed her food and went to set at the table. "They are definitely meant for each other, I don't think they could ever survive without one another." Eva smiled.


	15. Chapter 15

Sylvie lay in bed, it was six in the morning, Antonio would be waking up soon for work and it was the first day she would be alone with their daughter, no help from anyone. "Babe, stop thinking so loud, I can't sleep" Antonio groaned and rolled over throwing his arm over her stomach. "Sorry, I'm just worried, I'll be fine go back to sleep". He rolled on his back "Nope, I'm awake, alarm's going off in thirty anyway."

She rolled into his side putting her head on his bicep, eager for the contact. "I need to take a shower, can't be late on my first day back" she pouted as she drew circles on his chest, "You'll be fine, Gabby's off shift do you want her to come over so you'll have company?" he could feel her shake her head. "Bring Soph down to district later, some of those guys still haven't met her, maybe it'll put Platt in a good mood today." Sylvie nodded. "Go take your shower, I need to check on Sophie." She kissed his chest, climbed out of bed, and pulled her robe on.

Antonio was sitting at his desk thankful to be back at work, he didn't realize how much he had missed it. The team was working a case they had been on for nearly three weeks and he was trying to get up to speed. His phone buzzed, he opened the text and smiled.

"Someone sending you dirty texts? I used to get those to" Adam joked from across the room. Antonio shot him a look, "Watch it" Antonio warned as Kim threw a Sharpie at Adam hitting him in the chest, "As a matter of fact Sylvie's here" he stood up and headed for the stairs. Sylvie had texted him that she just pulled into the lot and she was on her way in.

Getting to the bottom of the stairs Antonio could hear Platt arguing with someone. "No, I'm not calling him, leave or I'll have you escorted out" she was agitated.

"Please Trudy he won't return my texts or calls, I need to talk to him, just tell him I'm here."

He recognized the voice, he threw the gate open. "You need to go now" he spoke low and serious and walked toward her. "Please just listen to me" she was begging.

"What part of restraining order do you not understand? Do you want to be in handcuffs again? Cause there's thirty cops here that'll do it with out question. Laura you are not this stupid!" he growled trying not to yell.

Sylvie walked through the door, Sophia attached to her chest in her carrier. Antonio moved to stand between the two women. "Trudy buzz her up, Sylvie take the baby and go, I'll be there in a minute" Sylvie just stood there, "Go!" she wasn't moving. "I'm not going anywhere." he glanced back at her; she had a determined look on her face. "Take the baby upstairs now and wait for me!" he wasn't in the mood for this.

Laura started begging, "Please just let me talk to her, I want to apologize, I want to make it right" she was starting to become hysterical.

"You're not talking to her, now get out of here" he spat. Sylvie stepped forward; "I can speak for myself, Tonio". He looked at her and she could tell he was pissed, anger starting to roll off him.

Trudy stepped from behind the desk "Give me Sophia, you guys take this into the room." She motioned to the small office off the side of the lobby. Sylvie undid Sophia and handed her off. "Now get this out of the middle of my lobby and me and Soph here will go have some girl time." Platt walked back behind the desk telling an officer she was taking a break and to watch the desk.

"You have both of us here, what could you possibly have to say that we want to hear?" he was seething. Laura was trying to pull her self together, she had been trying to get a hold of Antonio for almost two months but she was told every time she came in that he wasn't there and he wouldn't return calls or texts. She wasn't brave enough to go to the apartment knowing she would probably end up back in jail.

"I want to apologize, I want to see my kids and talk to them, I miss them and I know the only way to make that happen is to fix this between us." She motioned between the two of them. "And I want to apologize to her" she glanced at Sylvie.

Antonio instinctively readjusted his stance so he was more in front of Sylvie and grabbed her hand behind his back, keeping his eyes firmly on Laura.

"She didn't deserve the way I acted, have been acting." She exhaled. "Damn right she didn't, none of us did" he was trying to keep his temper in check.

"I'm jealous, I admit it, she's okay with your job, she understands it, I don't, it terrifies me, always has and I know that's not her problem, it's mine, and I didn't know how serious you two actually were, the kids don't tell me anything."

Antonio snorted "Marriage and a baby is pretty fucking serious Laura" she looked down. "I didn't know any of it, if I had I wouldn't have acted the way I did, I love kids and would never hurt one and she is Diego and Eva's sister, she is their family, if I hurt her, I hurt them and I wouldn't do that."

Sylvie stepped closer to Laura "You may not have known but you still hurt me, if I wasn't pregnant would you be standing here apologizing or would you still be trying to tear us apart? Because you've been trying to do that for almost three years, can't you see that this" she glanced over at Antonio, "isn't going anywhere, you've put us through hell and we keep coming out the other side."

She sighed and gripped his hand tighter "I want to get along with you, I really do, I love Diego and Eva but I'm not trying to replace you, I have my own daughter. If you keep this up though you're going to lose them completely, Eva's an adult she can see what's going on, and we try to protect Diego from it but he's fifteen, he's smart, he understands." Sylvie wasn't angry but she made her point and stepped back closer to Antonio.

Laura lifted her head and looked Sylvie in the eye "I'm done, I promise." She sounded defeated and sat down in the chair exhaling loudly. "Can I give you something Sylvie?" Sylvie looked at her skeptically and glanced at Antonio, he shrugged. "I guess," she sounded unsure.

Laura dug through her purse for a minute, looking for something. She emerged with a small box. "It isn't for you, it's for the kids, you can open it first but I wanted to give them something as an apology." Laura held it out in front of her and Antonio took it and handed it to Sylvie. "Please just give it to them." Sylvie looked at the box and back at Laura, "I will." She said placing the box in the diaper bag.

"Are we done here?" Antonio was irritated, this was supposed to be a nice lunch with his wife to introduce his daughter to his other family and it turned into a shit show.

"Can I see her, just to look at her?" Antonio started to answer but Sylvie interrupted. "You can" Sylvie gave Antonio's hand a squeeze, "Can you go get her from Trudy please?" he bore his eyes into her begging her not to do this, he wasn't ready. "Please, I'll be fine here" she squeezed his hand again and he turned to go out the door.

The room was silent for a minute then Laura began to speak "I started therapy, I'm trying to deal with it all, I really am sorry" she kept her eyes on the floor.

"Look at me" Laura looked up meeting her eyes "I can accept the apology if you promise this won't happen again, I hate that we have a restraining order against you, I never wanted that. I know he's your ex-husband, I know there's always going to be feelings there, you were together for a long time, and I respect that but he's my husband now and I need you to respect that too. He's the father of both of our children, we are always going to be connected, we are going to attend graduations, and weddings, and birthdays and so many other holidays and special events in between and I don't want it to be awkward for the kids or for them think they have to choose between us."

Laura nodded "I know, it clicked while Gabby had me pinned against the wall, I've never felt so ashamed in my life, I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself and will understand if you never do either."

Antonio walked back through the door and handed Sophia to Sylvie. "Hey baby girl, I missed you" she kissed her on the forehead. "Do you wanna meet brother and sister's mommy?" she whispered to the infant as she stepped closer to Laura.

Antonio had his jaw clenched tight, he still wasn't okay with this, "You can hold her if you want." Sylvie offered, she heard Antonio move nervously behind her, she looked back at him and smiled trying to assure him it was okay. She handed the baby to Laura and Laura accepted her, snuggling her into her chest.

Laura stared down at her for a moment. "She looks like Eva" she looked up at Sylvie then at Antonio, she could tell he was nervous. "Hi, Sophia, I'm Laura, your bother and sister's mom, you're beautiful just like your sister, you know that?" She was gently stroking her head. She looked to Antonio and smiled.

"I know you're too little to understand but I'm sorry if I hurt you and I hope one day we can be friends." Sophia started to fuss and Antonio stepped forward to grab her snuggling her against him, instantly she settled down.

"Thank you" she stood up meeting Antonio's eyes. He willed himself to look away but he couldn't he just stared at her, body clenched tight, he didn't want to forgive her for the torture she has but him through over the last five years. Sylvie touched his back; he flinched at the contact and then relaxed a little.

"It's okay to forgive her," she whispered in his ear, only he could hear. He turned his head and looked at her and she nodded and he returned his gaze to Laura and nodded, that was all he could give her, he turned towards the door and started to leave, he was done with this conversation, he wanted to get upstairs.

Sylvie was following behind him and Laura touched her arm to stop her. "Thank you too, I know you didn't have to." she looked sincere. "Will you please ask the kids to call me?" Sylvie nodded. "I'll talk to them." And she walked out the door following Antonio up to the bullpen.

Sylvie caught Antonio's wrist on the stairs, he spun around, he was pissed. "She deserves a chance to make it right" softly trying to convince him. He just stared at her, contemplating what he was going to say.

"I know but she destroyed me, I can't just forgive her" he whispered, he didn't want the whole building to hear anymore about his life.

"She deserves to be forgiven, I understand where she's coming from, if I ever lost you to someone else I would be a mess too" she stepped up to his stair and pulled him into a hug, Sophia wedged between them.

"Try to look at it from her point of view, if I left and met someone else and took Sophia with me and all of a sudden I'm married and having another baby, and another man is acting like her father and Sophia won't talk to you, what would you do?" she leaned down and kissed Sophia's head.

"I would kill him." He growled, the look in his eyes told Sylvie he was serious. "See, she feels the same way, she lost her mind a little, she said she's in therapy and working on it, let's just let her try okay?" he nodded his head conceding "Okay but if she pulls anything else I'm done" she kissed him on the cheek "Okay, now let's get upstairs" she grabbed his hand pulling him up the stairs.

Adam bounded out of his chair as soon as he saw Antonio and Sylvie enter. "Awe my littlest partner, I've missed you" he was stroking her face with his finger as he was trying to hug Sylvie, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Adam was by far the most enthusiastic of the group and he loved kids.

"She is not going to be a cop, doctor maybe or paramedic, even firefighter but no way is she ever going to have bullets flying at her." Sylvie scoffed at the idea. Antonio handed the baby off to Adam "You better be careful Ruzek, have you even held a baby before?" he looked serious. Adam held her up to where she was looking down at him "Yes, this one a lot and besides uncle Adam is her favorite right Sophie? Your dad is just a big grumpy worrier."

Kim and Jay had already made their way over and were giving Sylvie hugs. "Everything good?" Kim could see that something was bothering him. "We're good just a little drama, that's all" he tried to play it off. Kim had heard about the drama down stairs already but decided to just let it go. She patted him on the shoulder and moved to sit on the corner of Adams desk.

Voight noticed the commotion outside his office, "Is that my favorite Dawson?" He walked toward Adam. "Uhn-uh, no way boss, I just got her" he put his arms around her pretending to hold her tight.

"Ruzek you can't hog the baby, everyone want's to see her." Kim scolded setting on the edge of Adams desk. "Then Tony shouldn't have handed her to me" he teased. "Antonio, I've told you before, never hand the baby to Adam first, don't you remember the Gabby-Adam fiasco a couple of weeks ago." Kim laughed. "Gabby almost kicked his ass".

"Where did Upton and Atwater go? They were just here" Antonio was hoping the whole unit would stick around. He knew Sylvie wouldn't be able to stay very long. "They're grabbing a witness, should be back in an hour or so" Jay answered gliding his chair over to Adam to get a closer look at Sophia.

"She's so tiny for two months old" Jay started stroking her hair. "You think that's little you should have seen her at the hospital, she looked like a chicken nugget." Kim joked turning around to face Adam and Jay holding her thumb and finger up to show how little. Kim and Adam had been over at the apartment a lot hanging out keeping them company. Having a preemie means you don't leave the house very much and it was nice to have friends visit.

"She did not look like a chicken nugget, she was bigger than that" Sylvie pretended to pout and moved to pick Sophia up from Adam. Adam swatted her hand away "No" he laughed handing the baby to Sylvie.

"Do you mind? It's been a while since I've been able to hold one this small." He smiled at Sylvie holding his arms out. Hank had visited in the hospital but they weren't letting anyone hold her at that point.

She placed Sophia in his arms and she immediately started screaming. Everyone started laughing, "What? She's a baby they cry" he was trying to shush the baby and comfort her. "Not that one, she barely cries, she has you pegged." Adam was cracking up.

Voight looked around the room "Really? Little miss all these knuckleheads and you're going to cry at me, what's with that huh?" he was rubbing his hand up and down her back trying to get her to stop. "Don't you know that I'm the one you want in your corner, I'll give you my card if you stop crying, it's good for anything you want later" he was trying to bribe her. Sylvie grabbed her pacifier and put it in her mouth and she settled down nuzzling into Voight's arms. "See everyone likes Voight, whether they know it or not" he chuckled.


	16. Chapter 16

Sylvie felt like she hadn't been out in forever, it felt weird to leave Sophia and go meet up with Gabby and the girls all alone but Antonio had insisted that she go out and he would watch the baby and everything would be just fine. She was skeptical but she decided one Friday night wouldn't kill her.

"Oh my god! Is that Sylvie Brett I see in the living flesh, out at Molly's, sans husband and child?" Stella ran over and wrapped her in a hug; she thought she was going to suffocate. "Yes, it's me and it's Dawson not Brett." She pretended to scold her friend. "Nope, you're Brett always will be, Dawson is way to confusing especially when you get back to 51, can you imagine two Dawson's on ambo?" Stella laughed and dragged her toward the table in the back where Kim and Gabby were.

Gabby and Kim jumped up to hug her. "Hey Sis glad you could make it, did you leave Sophia with Antonio?" Sylvie returned their hugs, "Yeah he thought I needed a night out with you guys alone after the week we've had, running into Laura and everything." Gabby gave her a confused look, "What? When did you run into Laura?" Sylvie forgot she didn't fill her in this week.

Kim spoke up "She been showing up at district looking for Antonio constantly for months and Monday oopsie they all ended up in the lobby the same time." She giggled; Kim had already had several drinks and was feeling good.

Sylvie gave Kim a look, "It wasn't bad, long story short, we came to an agreement, she apologized, I accepted, Tonio's being stubborn, and I let her meet Sophia." Sylvie did not want to talk about this; she was here to have a good time.

"Wow, okay then, and you think it's all better now?" Gabby asked. "It will but can we change the subject please? What's been going on at work?" she was really wanting to know all the firehouse gossip.

"Fucking Upton keeps flirting with Adam, I wish we would just come out at work but no I don't want anyone to know." Kim was pouting. "Well you're the one with the rules, not him." Stella pushed her shoulder. "I mean he is cute, I'm sure lots of girls flirt with him all the time." Stella was prodding her now.

"Only I get to flirt with him." Kim was starting to get agitated. Gabby grabbed Kim's drink. "Okay, I'm cutting you off for a while or you'll end up drunk calling her and then you'll have a real problem with Voight." Kim nodded not protesting.

Sylvie felt arms wrap around her shoulders from behind startling her and she looked up. "Hey kid it's been forever, kinda like you ran off, had a baby and got married." Sylvie turned quickly in his arms hugging him tightly.

"Kelly!" she exclaimed. "It's been a month since I've seen you, you need to come over more." She kissed him on the cheek. "Yeah, I will, where's Tony?" Kelly looked around the bar. "He stayed home to watch Sophia so I could have a girls night." Kelly grinned. "Well don't let me interrupt you, I'll grab you girls a round, behave now." He winked and headed toward the bar.

Gabby had taken Kim's phone and called Adam around twelve to pick Kim up, she wasn't in any condition to drive and she didn't need to have her phone either.

"You need to stop the flirting with Upton or me and you are going to have a problem, she's upset." Gabby had pulled Adam to the side when he got there. "I'm not flirting with her, she's flirting with me." He tried to argue it.

"Either way shut it down, tell her you have a girlfriend or that it's unprofessional. Anyway you gotta do it cause she's one of my best friends and I'm not putting up with it." She was pissed. "Consider it done boss. I love her, you know, it's just so hard with her rules." He sighed. Gabby gave him a hug, "I know" she helped him get Kim out to the car.

Sylvie made it home at one in the morning and crawled into bed snuggling into Antonio. "Did you have fun?" she nodded into his side. "Did you discuss anything interesting?" she nodded again. "Upton is flirting with Adam, Kim's pissed." Antonio laughed. "Upton flirts with everyone." Sylvie popped her head up and looked at him.

"Oh really?" she was interested to hear this. He laughed, "I mean she's nice, she get's along with guys, it may seem like flirting but I honestly don't think it is." Sylvie wasn't so sure. "Uh huh okay…well maybe someone should say something to her because she's going to "accidently" piss the wrong wife off someday." She yawned. "You're tired, just go to sleep." He chuckled and kissed her.

"Yo, Dawson's who are wanting to go look at this house, you need to be ready to go in five or the truck's leaving without you" Antonio yelled from the kitchen. It was the last Saturday he would have off for awhile since he was going back on-call for the weekends. "We're coming dad, hold on, Sylvie's still changing Sophia so we can't leave yet anyway" Eva came from down the hallway pulling her hoodie over her head, Diego following right behind her carrying his shoes.

It was December and cold as fuck outside but the apartment was starting to feel claustrophobic, they needed to find a new place sooner rather than later. Five people shoved into a small place just wasn't working anymore. And truth be told he really wanted Sophia into her own room so he could have Sylvie to himself.

Sylvie grabbed the diaper bag to make sure everything was in there when she found the box that Laura had given her earlier in the week. She contemplated opening it but set it to the side deciding to let Eva do it and continued to load the bag.

"Eva, Diego come over here for a minute" she was by the couch strapping the baby into her car seat. "Your mom gave me this the other day to give to you." Eva gave her a weird look "When did you see mom?" she picked the box up off the coffee table. "The other day we ran into her, she said she had a gift for you." Sylvie didn't have time to explain right then but made a mental note to set down as a family later in the evening to discuss Laura.

Eva opened the box, Diego looking over her shoulder trying to see what they had got. "Wow, they're pretty" she said pulling a gold bracelet with her name on it out. "Look here's one for Diego and two for Sophia too." Sylvie spun around and took the box from Eva "Why would she get Sophia bracelets?" Sylvie was curious. Sylvie held them up, one was a tiny one that would fit an infant and the other was larger. "Umm, there's a note in here at the bottom with your name on it Eva" Sylvie lifted it out of the box and handed it to Eva to read.

"I wanted to get you something to show you how sorry I am for how I have been behaving, I love you and your brother and really regret that we cannot be a family at the moment, it's my fault, not yours or your dads, and I understand that. Family is very important to your dad and I want that for you and Diego so I bought you, your brother, and your sister bracelets so that no matter what is happening between us adults, you three know you have each other and that your bond cannot be broken. I'm working on becoming the mother I once was and I will get there, I just hope you can be patient with me and hopefully forgive me someday for how I have treated you. I've accepted that Sylvie is a part of your life and that you love her very much and I am thankful that she loves you too because there can never be too many people who love and care for you. I would love it if you and your brother could call me so we can talk. I love you two with all my heart, Love Mom."

Eva was crying and went to hug her dad. "I do miss her dad but she makes me so angry sometimes." Antonio was rubbing her back "I know but everyone deserves second chances and she is your mom." he said staring at Sylvie. Eva nodded her head and held her bracelet up to look at it, "Dad, can you put it on me?" he took the bracelet and helped put it around her wrist.

Diego just sat on the edge of the coffee table not saying a word "You okay?" Sylvie rubbed his back worried that he hadn't said anything. "Yeah, can we just go please?" Sylvie glanced worriedly at Antonio and he just shrugged his shoulders "Sure do you want to put your bracelet on?" he held out his wrist wordlessly and Sylvie snapped it on. Sylvie grabbed the smallest bracelet out of the box "It was thoughtful that she got one that Sophie can wear now and one she'll fit later" she thought out loud, snapping the bracelet on Sophia.

Diego and Eva went ahead to get in the truck as Sylvie and Antonio walked slowly down the stairs. "Maybe she is getting better? That seemed really genuine Tonio." Antonio just nodded his head as he continued down the stairs. "Come on you can't say that wasn't really sweet." She glanced over at him.

Antonio sighed. "That letter and the other day at district that was the Laura I knew, the one I married, the one I loved, she's a really good person, I just hope she stays around this time" he nervously peeked over at Sylvie to judge her reaction to his confession.

She stopped him, "Hey, you know it's okay that you loved her right? It's even okay if you still love her, I know you love me and you're not going anywhere, okay?" he nodded.

"I just feel bad, I know I shouldn't still have those feelings but they are there, not all the time but sometimes they sneak up. I'm in love with you and I would never act on them, I promise." He felt horrible thinking he should have just kept this to himself.

She smiled, "I know they're there, that's why you're so emotional with her, she broke you, I knew that coming into this and I'm okay with it. I would be naïve to think that there wasn't anything there, I can look and Diego and Eva and how happy and loving they are and know that they came from parents that obviously loved each other very much and that doesn't just go away. But I also know that you're a good man and would never hurt me and I trust you so you don't need to worry about me being jealous, I'm fine. So lets just get going before the kids think we go lost." She grabbed his hand and pulled him down the stairs.

Antonio pulled up to the curb of the townhouse and Sylvie got out to look around. "Hey, babe there's a park right up the street" she pointed. She started toward the front door when the realtor suddenly appeared startling her. "You must be the Dawson's, right?" She extended her hand.

"Yes, Sylvie Dawson, my husband Antonio, and our kids, sorry we're late." Sylvie shook her hand. Everyone greeted her, Antonio shaking her hand. "It's okay, lets have a look shall we?" the realtor ushered them inside out of the cold."

It was huge, it felt ten times bigger than the apartment. The kids went in search of their rooms and Sylvie went to the kitchen, Antonio following her with the baby in her seat. "I think I really like this one, can we afford it?" he sat the seat down and took Sophia out. "Yeah the payments not as bad as you're thinking."

"Lets just look around and see if we like it, okay?" he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the stairs. "Let's go check out that master bedroom, it think it might be my favorite room" he winked at her. "Funny Tonio" she giggled, pushing him up the stairs.

The house was perfect, each kid would have their own room and there was a game room on the third floor, there was more than plenty of room for everyone. The kids were excited, Eva would have a shorter commute to school and Diego was still in the attendance area for his. They decided to put an offer in on it and head home to wait for an answer, hoping the wait would be short.

"What does everyone want for dinner? I'm not cooking." Sylvie was exhausted from lack of sleep from her girls night last night and had no intentions of stepping foot in the kitchen. "I'll just order pizza and wings and I think we still need to have a talk with them about Laura, right?" he was talking low trying to keep the kids from hearing.

"Yeah, really though, I don't think it's going to be as big of a deal as you think, I just want them to get back on a good page with her, they deserve that. So lets just get it over with so we can all move on." She squeezed his hand. "Go order the pizza and we'll do it while we're waiting okay?" she said grabbing Sophia and heading towards the kitchen to make her a bottle.

Antonio called the kids to the front room. He was anxious to have this conversation because it had been so long since they had discussed Laura. The last the kids knew was that she had hurt Sylvie and neither had made any attempt to talk to her and had ignored her phone calls since the incident. Him and Sylvie didn't even let the kids know there was a restraining order, Sylvie had argued that the kids should be allowed to contact her if they wanted and knowing about the restraining order would only influence their decision and she didn't want that. He had tried to argue with her but relented knowing that she was right.

"What's up dad? Did we get the house?" Eva came into the room, Antonio having just called them. "No, we haven't heard yet, we're having a family meeting." He motioned for them to sit. Diego groaned plopping down in his chair.

"Me and Sylvie want to talk to you about your mom" he glanced over at Sylvie who was feeding Sophia on the couch next to him. "What about?" Diego sounded worried.

"You know that we saw her a couple days ago and we talked some stuff out" he was playing with his hands nervously. "Your mom, she apologized to Sylvie and to me, she really wants to see you two and we think it would be a good idea." He grabbed Sylvie's free hand and pulled it to his lap. "What do you think Diego?" he asked him.

Diego didn't answer immediately, his kept his eyes on the floor. Slowly he began "You remember when I was kidnapped?" Antonio exhaled slowly and nodded, that was the most terrifying event of his life. "You saved me dad, you and your team, I knew you would get me, that's what kept me from being scared, I knew I would be safe." He looked at his dad. "And right after that mom took us from you. You were my safe place and mom took me away. I was just a little kid and mom kept telling me that I couldn't see you and to stop asking." Diego started crying and Eva moved over to his chair and shoved in to hug him.

"You know that wasn't your fault right? None of it." Diego nodded. "I know it was hers, mom's been hurting all of us for so long and I'm tired of it dad." Antonio sat up and scooted close to the edge of the couch.

"There was a lot more going on then you guys knew, Jules had just been killed, I had been shot twice within a year and you were kidnapped, mom was scared and I didn't listen to her. It was my fault too, I could have left and got a different job and fought for her and you guys but I didn't, so I'm as much to blame as she is, if not more." Sylvie scooted over and leaned into him trying to comfort him knowing how hard it was to admit what he was telling the kids.

"Look, I'm not asking the two of you to forgive her right away but you do need to talk to her, she's your mom, the only one you have and she deserves a second chance. And I really think she has changed this time. Sylvie's forgiven her, I've forgiven her, so let's just try to move on with our lives okay?" he glanced over at Sylvie and she smiled at him.

"I'll try dad, maybe we could all have dinner together or something?" Eva was open to the idea, she loved her mom but they fought a lot especially about her mom's boyfriends. Diego didn't answer he just nodded his head and seemed to agree with his sister. "I think dinner would be a great idea." Sylvie said but she had alternate plans and hoped Laura would agree and Antonio wouldn't be too upset.

There was a knock at the door and Antonio's phone rang. Sylvie handed the baby to Eva and answered the door and paid for the pizza. Antonio had moved to the bedroom to take the call. The kids were getting their plates when Antonio reemerged.

"They accepted our offer!" he exclaimed. "What your kidding, that was fast!" Sylvie nearly jumped across the kitchen into his arms, kissing him firmly on the lips. The kids both screamed happy to finally be moving into a house and having more room. "The realtor said it should take about thirty days to close, so just in time to move in the snow and cold." He laughed, happy that everything finally seemed like it was coming together.


	17. Chapter 17

Antonio stormed out of Voight's office slamming the door behind him and ran down the stairs, ignoring Adam hollering after him. He was pissed he had specifically asked not to be assigned out to any other units without his permission but Voight said it came from higher up, they needed someone who had contact with this gang previously and it was their final decision, he couldn't fight it.

Sylvie had just gone back to work; she was so excited to finally be back at the firehouse. She had been off work for nine months and she was eager to get back to doing what she loved. Of course she loved being with Sophia but she never envisioned being a stay at home mom, she needed to be busy and feel like she was doing good in the world and being a paramedic fulfilled that for her.

Antonio pulled up to the firehouse, seeing the ambulance he felt relieved he wouldn't have to wait around for her. "Hey, bro is Sylvie around?" he asked Matt who was running drills with the truck guys on the apparatus floor. "Umm..yeah I think her and Gabby are back in the bunk room, you can head on in and check," he said sharing a fist bump with him.

Sylvie saw Antonio and was surprised. "Tonio, what are you doing here?" she walked toward him giving him a hug. She noted he looked pissed and hugged him a little tighter. "Is there somewhere we can talk for a minute?" she nodded and motioned for Kelly's bunk knowing he wouldn't mind. "Hey sister here, what I get no love?" she was joking with him. "Hey sis, sorry, it's important." He kissed her on the cheek and went toward the room shutting the door as soon as him and Sylvie stepped in.

Sylvie set on the bed just staring at him waiting for him to start but he was nervous, this was the first time he was doing this to her and he didn't know how she was going to react. "They're putting me deep under, no contact" he spread his arms open and sighed. "For how long?" she was careful not to show any emotion knowing this was hard for him.

"It's long, at least six weeks, maybe longer they said." He sat down on the bed next to her. "We'll just have to figure it out." She tried to sound supportive. "I didn't have a choice, chief asked for me personally because I have history with this gang from back when I was in vice. I'm going under in the morning before you get off shift, I'm sorry." He kept his eyes firmly glued to the ground not wanting to see the disappointment in her eyes.

"Look at me." She said and he pulled his eyes up to meet hers. "I'm okay, I'll figure it out, I'll just need help with the nights I'm on shift, your mom already does days." He nodded at her. "But you shouldn't have to just figure it out on your own and who could possibly help anyway? Everyone we know works the same shift as you or is on call in my unit." She grabbed his hand and squeezed, she had an idea.

"I'm going to say a name and I need you to think rationally and not emotionally before you answer okay?" he was certain he wasn't going to like this but nodded. "Laura" was all she said and he just looked at her like she had lost her damn mind. "Rationally, okay?" she was nodding trying to get him to agree.

"I don't know, that's a little crazy babe" he was conflicted and didn't know how to react. "We had Christmas together before we moved and we've been out to dinner with her and the kids multiple times, and her and I text. I think she might agree and it would work." She was trying to convince him and maybe herself a little too.

Sylvie had surprised them with Christmas, right after they had their family meeting about Laura. He was uncomfortable the whole time but tried to make the best of it. The kids had seemed to enjoy themselves and Laura was on her best behavior.

He locked his fingers behind his head and put his head between his legs exhaling loudly, he clearly wasn't comfortable with this idea but he couldn't see any other options at the moment.

"Listen, I'll call her and work it out, you don't have to be involved at all, it'll be alright, I promise." She rubbed his back and kissed him on the head.

"I'm going to miss you, you won't hear from me the entire time but Voight will send updates with Burgess once a week. Okay?" he was standing now looking down at her.

The bells went off, calling for Ambo 61. "I'm going to miss you too but we'll talk tonight and in the morning before you go, love you." She kissed him and ran for the ambulance with Gabby.

Sylvie was quiet on the Ambo ride to the call just staring out the window; Gabby noted that she looked upset. "What's going on? You look like someone stole your puppy." She joked.

"They did" she said and kept staring out the window. "What? You don't have a puppy." Gabby was confused.

Sylvie sighed loudly, "They're putting Tonio deep under for at least six weeks in the morning." Gabby's eyes got big, "They haven't put him under for that long in a long time. I'm sorry, are you okay?" she was concerned for her friend.

"It's okay, I'm good, I think it will really test how strong we are though." She was hoping they passed that test with flying colors. "I'm going to ask Laura to help with Sophia on shift nights." Gabby spun her head to look at her like she was crazy. "Are you sure about that? That's a little out there you know that right?"

Sylvie laughed, "I know but she is better now, we've been getting along, we talk about the kids, I really think she's in a good place. And even you told me once she was a good mom, I'm sure she would be just fine with Sophia. I do think Tonio thought I lost my mind when I suggested it though." She smiled over at Gabby.

"I guess you have to do what feels right for you, you're the one who's stuck, hopefully it works out but just in case do you have a backup plan?" Gabby was hoping she did knowing the past couple years Laura could be unpredictable.

Sylvie nodded, "Cindy but she gets stuck with everyone's kids, I don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage too, you know." She really loved Cindy and knew she would watch Sophia but any given night she was stuck with one or two extra kids, she didn't have it in her heart to do it to her also. She really just hoped his whole thing worked out and was over with as quickly as possible.

It had been three weeks since Antonio went under and Sylvie had only received two updates, both stating only that he was doing fine, no other explanation, it frustrated her but she kept her head up and tried to be happy for the kids. Much to Sylvie's relief, Laura agreed to watch Sophia on shift nights and had suggested she would be more comfortable doing at their house, where all Sophia's stuff was and she would be able to see Diego and Eva too, Sylvie preferred that idea so Sophia would be bounced around as much.

It was odd for Laura to be in her ex-husband's and his wife's home babysitting their child, and sleeping on their couch. Sylvie had insisted she could sleep in their bed but she just couldn't, it was too surreal. But she got to spend time with her kids and Sophia truly was the easiest baby she had ever dealt with. She never cried, she would fuss but other than that she was happy and content just playing on her mat with her toys or being held. Eva and Diego tried to schedule their life around her being there but they were teenagers and had lives of the own so they were gone a lot with friends. She was left alone most of the time with Sophia.

"Hey, Soph how bout we go lay down and go night-night so you can see mommy in the morning huh? Does that sound good?" It was just after nine and Laura was walking up the stairs to put Sophia down when she noticed the flashing lights. She moved back down the stairs to check out the window when someone knocked on the door. She answered it and two patrolmen stood in front of her.

"Mrs. Dawson?" she was confused. "I'm one of them yeah, which one do you need?" the officers exchanged a look. "Sylvie Dawson, is she here? We need to take her and her children into protective custody." Laura's heart began to race. "Is something wrong with Antonio?" she needed to focus. "I'm Laura, his ex-wife, Sylvie's on shift at firehouse 51, I'm babysitting, our other kids are out." She was starting to panic.

One of the patrolmen turned around and walked out of her earshot and started talking into his radio. "Do you mind if I come in while we wait for you to get the kids locations?" she ushered him inside and picked up her cell phone and tried to call each kid but it went to voicemail, not surprising. She texted them 911 and they both texted immediately where they were, she thanked the lord they had good kids.

"What's going on? Please tell me." She was begging the patrolman but he wouldn't budge, she doubted he even knew. "Can you please go get some stuff together for the children?" she moved to head up stairs with Sophia only taking a couple of minutes for each kid and heading back down.

The second patrolman walked inside and whispered to the first, he looked over at Laura. "They've picked up Mrs. Dawson from 51 and picked up the girl. An officer should be to the boy in a couple of minutes. Now you said this is their child also?" he said pointing at Sophia. "Yes, the other two are mine and Antonio's, can you please tell me what's going on?" she was frustrated and scared.

"They've requested we pick you up also. Can you place the baby in her car seat so we can get you guys down to the district?" he was clearly ignoring her questions. She did what they asked and hoped she would find out what was going on soon. She knew it must have been bad because not once had her or the kids ever been taken into protective custody before.

Laura walked into the bullpen carrying Sophia in her arms, a patrolman behind her carrying their stuff. She spotted Sylvie and made a beeline for her handing Sophia off. "What is going on? Do you know?" she asked but Sylvie looked more confused and freaked out then she did. Diego and Eva arrived at the same time both running for the two women. Diego wrapped his arms around Sylvie and Eva around her mom and just hung on. They didn't know what to do and no one was up in the bullpen with them except two patrolmen.

"Where's Intelligence, will they be back soon?" Sylvie was questioning. "We don't know ma'am, we had instructions to pick you up, bring you here, and stay with you. That's all we have, there's snacks in the kitchen if you want." He offered.

Sylvie heard the door at the end of the hallway open and saw Voight walk through the door with the rest of the unit behind him. He went straight in for a hug from Sylvie and asked her to follow him to his office. She handed Sophia off to Adam, who gladly took her and followed Hank and he shut the door behind her.

"I know you have a lot of questions and I'm gonna tell you right now, we don't have a lot of answers." He was staring at her and she just nodded. "I need you to know that you guys are in the safest place in the city and we are doing everything we can so I need you not to panic when I tell you what happened. And I need you to keep this in house, I can't risk anyone else knowing, not Gabby or anyone. Can you do that?" he was standing right in front of her ready to catch her if she collapsed.

"Come on, will you just tell me?" she was so anxious, her chest was pounding. "We know Antonio was shot, we don't know how bad" she gasped. "And he's missing, his wire went dead just after seven and our other undercover hasn't been able to get eyes on him. He was made and they figured out who he is and they know about you guys." He pointed toward the kitchen.

Sylvie was crying, she was sure this was a nightmare, she heard screaming from somewhere, it sounded like her own voice but she couldn't tell, she couldn't think straight, she knew she needed out of Voight's office, out of the building, she turned to leave when she felt arms grab her from behind. "Let me go" she was fighting him, she needed out, this wasn't happening.

"Sylvie, I need you to calm down, listen to me, if you go out there like this you're gonna scare the kids, they don't need to be scared right now. They need to know they're safe. Do you understand?" she kept fighting against him, he pulled her into a tight hug and just held her until she was done sobbing.

She kept crying, the world not making any sense. She heard Voight speak, her head still pressed against his chest. "I promise I'll get him back, you have my word" she sniffled. "You better" She was starting to calm down. She knew Voight was good for his word but knowing Antonio was hurt out there somewhere killed her.

Hank finally let her go and looked her in the face wiping her tears away. "You good?" she nodded and he opened the door for her. She went to find the kids and Laura; they apparently had been moved to the vending machine room down the hall so they didn't hear her outburst. She made eye contact with Laura and just shook her head letting her know it was bad, she hugged her "I'll explain when the kids aren't around, we're not leaving for a while, it's bad." Laura nodded accepting the explanation. "Where's Adam and Sophia?" she knew Adam wouldn't give Sophia up if he didn't absolutely have to. "I think in the locker room." Laura stated.

Sylvie made her way across the hall and into the locker room. Adam wasn't there so she went back toward the bullpen and found him sitting on his desk holding Sophia talking to her. She walked over to him and just wrapped her self around his middle and Sophia, she felt safe there. He held on to her tight and just let her hug him. "It'll be okay, we're gonna find him." Adam was rubbing his hand up and down her back.

Kim made a choice in that moment and walked over to them and wrapped her arms around Sylvie and Sophia. She looked at Adam and just nodded. He kissed all three of them on the top of the head. "Look, we're all family and we don't leave family behind, he will come home, I promise." And he just kept holding them. The rest of Intelligence just watched, they were at a loss for words, what do you say to the family of a cop who is missing and injured?

"Let's roll out now!" Voight came out of his office in a hurry. "We got a tip, we need to act fast. Burgess stay here." She stood up straight "Yeah, boss." Adam handed Sophia off to Sylvie and kissed Kim before running down the hall.

"Well I guess that's out now." Sylvie tried to break the tension, Kim just her head, and gave a weak smile. "You don't have to do that." Sylvie just looked at her. "I know your dying inside, it's okay, don't worry about me, have you told Laura?" Kim asked knowing she hadn't. Sylvie shook her head "I don't want to in front of the kids."

"Then I'll go get her and stay with the kids down the hall" Kim to Sophia and waked toward the hallway.

Sylvie had sat down at Antonio desk and was looking at the pictures of her and the kids, Al, and Jules. She picked up the picture of Jules and was looking at it, she had never met her, she died before she ever moved here but he talked about her a lot. He said Kim reminded him of her and that's why he loved Kim so much. She didn't hear Laura walk up behind her. "She was great, I loved her and her kids, her husband moved after she died and I haven't seen them in years." Sylvie jumped startled by Laura. "His partner now, Kim, is one my best friends, I get it. Kim's the best, I know he's safe with her, he says she reminds him of her." She smiled putting the picture back down on the desk.

"So what did Voight say?" Laura was worried. Sylvie was willing herself not to cry again, "They know Antonio was shot, they don't know how bad the injury is. Voight said his wire went dead around seven and they know he was made and that they know who he is and who we are. He's missing and hurt and they haven't been able to find him." Laura pulled up a chair and just sat there shocked.

It was almost two in the morning, Eva was asleep on the couch in the kitchen with Sophia tucked in between her and the back of the couch, Diego was asleep at Kim's desk. The women were just talking amongst themselves, trying to pass time without actually discussing what was happening and trying to keep themselves awake.

They could hear someone running up the stairs, they all looked in that direction and Hailey and Jay came running in. "Kim, Voight said stay here with the kids and Laura, Sylvie you come with us." Hailey smiled at Kim. "We got him extracted, he's on his way to Med, condition unknown." Kim let out a long breath, relieved that he was out. "Is he alive?" Sylvie needed to know before she moved. Hailey nodded her head "Yeah, he was when they pulled him out but we gotta go."

Sylvie stood and hugged Kim quickly and took off down the stairs with Hailey and Jay,

"Can we call Gabby yet? She has to be worried sick after I was picked up, she's not stupid, she'll know it's because of Antonio and she'll be pissed." She asked when they made it to the car. She needed to call her; she had to be going out of her mind.

"Wait until we get the clear from Voight. Gabby's tough, she'll be fine, I would know I used to date her." Jay smiled back at her. Hailey just looked over at him, this whole damn unit was connected in someway or another she thought, she was definitely the odd man out here.

They arrived at the hospital and Hailey and Jay escorted Sylvie in. They found the rest of the team and Adam wrapped Sylvie in a hug. Sylvie turned in his arms to face Voight, Adam keeping his arms around her. "Where is he? I need to see him." she tried to keep calm but knowing he was hurt, she just needed to get to him.

"He's in the Emergency Department, they're assessing him, and I haven't even been able to see him. I know he was shot in his shoulder and he was beaten pretty badly but he's alive and responsive." Sylvie started to cry and Adam hugged her more tightly.

"Can I call Gabby now please, his family needs to know." Hank thought about it for a minute before answering her. "Yeah, I think that would be fine now but she can't come in here all full of piss and vinegar, make sure she knows that, I did what I needed to get him back safe, plain and simple."

Gabby arrived within an hour, Sylvie had warned her what Voight said and in typical Gabby fashion she didn't care. She remained calm but shot ugly looks at him whenever she could. "I'm going to find a nurse to see if we can go back" Gabby stood just as Dr. Halstead walked in.

"He's alert and he's talking, he was shot in the right shoulder, a through and through, no major damage, no surgery, he has a concussion, three broken ribs, contusions everywhere, a broken wrist and hand, and a fractured eye socket but he's going to be okay." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and started cheering. "He's asking for Sylvie" she stepped forward and he motioned for her to follow him. "He looks rough, it might shock you but it looks worse than it actually is, he refusing any pain meds until he sees you." She nodded, just following him silently, relieved he was even alive.

They arrived at the room; she was scared to go in. She took a deep breath and stepped through the door. He was lying there and he looked so broken, tears began to run down her face. "Hey baby come here, it's okay" he opened his arms wanting her to give him a hug. She moved towards him but stopped just shy of the side of the bed.

"I don't want to hurt you" she could see he was covered in bruises. "You could never hurt me, you're what fixes me." She gently leaned down and buried her face in his neck and just cried. He wrapped his good arm around her the best he could and just held on to her.

She pulled back and kissed him on the lips gently and just stared at him. "I thought you were dead." She said gently. "So did I." he admitted. "They have all of us in protective custody, the kids are at the district with Laura and Kim and Gabby is in the waiting room." He was relieved, he was told that they were going to kill them and he believed them.

"I'm glad you're all safe, I'm so sorry, this should have never happened." He was getting upset. Sylvie was shushing him, "It's not you're fault, it's just part of the job, it's all okay, and we're okay. Why don't you try to sleep?" she didn't want him any more upset than he already was. She called the nurse and asked for his pain meds and the nurse returned with IV pain meds and hooked it up. He was out in no time.

The lights flashed on and Sylvie blinked covering her eyes, it was too bright, she must have fallen asleep. All of a sudden Voight was in her face pulling her up by her arm. "Sylvie, we need to move him and you to a secure room, there's been a hit ordered." She was confused, "What do you mean, where are the kids?" she was trying to pull her mind back together, she glanced at the clock, it was around seven in the morning.

"We moved everyone else to a safe house, Gabby, the kids, Laura, and his parents, they're all fine. Ruzek and Burgess are with them and we have three patrol cars sitting on the house." He filled her in, moving her towards the door while two nurses worked on moving Antonio behind them. She stepped out the door and was immediately surrounded by five cops and Platt. She gasped surprised by everyone and Platt wrapped her arm around her shoulders and guided her.

"It will be okay, just breathe, intelligence is working on it." Platt whispered in her ear. Sylvie just nodded, it was way too much and she was too drained. "They sedated him, to keep him calm." Platt was trying to fill her in on what was going on. Sylvie glanced back at him noticing he was still asleep. "Why?" she wanted to know.

Platt chuckled, "He has a tendency to overreact and is less than cooperative when he's confined to a hospital bed and is told he can't help, he thinks he's superman. I forget you haven't seen him like this." Sylvie shook her head, she had know idea how he acted when he was hurt but she knew he was stubborn though.

Sylvie felt like she had been trapped in that tiny hospital room for weeks, realistically it was a little under forty-eight hours. She was climbing the walls and Antonio was driving her insane, he wouldn't stay in bed and he complained constantly about not being included on the case. "If you don't stay in bed, I'm going to have them tie you down." She felt like she was scolding him every five minutes.

"Well if they would answer they're damn phones and tell me what the fuck is going on, I wouldn't be this anxious now would I?" he was frustrated and couldn't set still. "Besides my legs aren't broken, just my hand and shoulder" he held up his hand and sighed. "Left hand and right shoulder, I'm useless." he pouted and plopped down in the chair and wincing, he had forgotten he had broken ribs. "Mother fucker!" Sylvie giggled at him and he glared at her.

"I thought being away from you for six weeks would be a good test for our marriage but really being trapped in a small room with you for days will be the real test, I'm beginning to think we'll be lucky if we survive this." She smirked at him.

"Real funny, you're never leaving me, you're too obsessed with me. I seem to recall a persistent Brett ambushing me at the bar after I told her no about hanging out and then her showing up at my door one night in an overcoat and boots. You chased me, remember." He smiled at her. She laughed, "Well, if you would have never hit on me in the first place, I wouldn't have come after you, so you started it, it's not my fault I like a challenge and I like to win." She walked over to him and leaned down and kissed him. "I think we both won." He grinned.

There was a knock at the door and Voight entered. "Where the fuck have you been? You haven't answered my calls or texts and neither has anyone else since yesterday!" Antonio was pissed; he was trying and failing to stand up to confront Voight.

Voight raised his hands, "Hey calm down, we were getting close, we didn't have time to stop and make sure you were up-to-date on every aspect of the case." He was agitated with him but trying to his cool. "And it's over anyway, threat's gone."

"We can go home, are you sure it's safe?" Sylvie asked ignoring Antonio complaining next to her. Hank shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded, "Yeah, patrol has already taken everyone home, the kids are at Gabby and Casey's." Sylvie walked over to hug him, grateful that she would finally be able to see her daughter again, they had Facetime'd but it wasn't the same.

"Thank you for keeping your promise." She stated as she placed a kiss on his cheek. "We're family, I protect my family, always" he smiled at her.

"Antonio, we'll debrief you later and fill you in on everything we know. Now, I need you to stop driving her crazy because I know you are and just be thankful she hasn't come to her senses and left you yet and go home and get some rest." Voight laughed, he knew exactly how Antonio was when he couldn't do what he wanted. "And I don't want to hear anything about you trying to come back before you are completely healed, do I make my self clear?" he gave Antonio a look that let him know he wasn't kidding.

Antonio had managed to stand and walked toward Voight and did the best he could to hug him. "I know I'm a pain in the ass but thanks for getting me out alive and making sure Sylvie and the kids were safe. I know you always say we owe you nothing but we do, everyone of us owe you everything."


	18. Chapter 18

"Eight weeks, eight long fucking weeks, Syl, that's how long I've been off, I need to go back or I'm going to lose my mind!" Antonio felt like they had been having this same fight for the last two weeks. He needed out, he needed to feel useful, he could do paperwork, or shit he would sit the front desk at district, he didn't care he just needed to do something.

"The doctor said twelve, you still have a cast on your wrist. You're not going to be cleared by medical." She was calm; she knew he felt like a caged animal, that this wasn't fun for him like when Sophia was born. He was needed then, he had a purpose but now it was him who was healing and it was driving him crazy.

"I can do desk duty, anything just please, I promise I won't use my gun or go in the field, please!" He had decided he wasn't above begging to get what he wanted. She was starting to piss him off with her calmness, he wanted her to yell back to justify his annoyance but she wouldn't give in, she just sat there with that stupid amused look on her face.

"Voight said no, I don't control him." She was trying not to laugh. This was a whole new side of Antonio that she hadn't met until recently. She had been warned she thought, everyone told her he acted like a toddler when he was hurt or sick but she was actually enjoying it.

"Come on just get dressed or we're going to be late for your appointment. If you hurry up I promise we'll talk to the doctor about it, okay?" She knew what the doctor was going to say, the same thing he had been saying for four weeks since Antonio started in on this desk duty business. "But what if he says no again? What then Sylvie, huh?" He was whining and he knew he looked ridiculous standing there in his boxers begging his wife to go back to work but he didn't care, he needed to get his point across.

As much as Sylvie was enjoying Antonio's meltdown, they seriously needed to leave in the next ten minutes or they were going to be late. She walked to him and placed her arms around his neck and pulled his forehead to hers. "Look, I was off for nine whole months, sicker than sick and almost died trying to have your baby, I think you can man up and do another four weeks if that's what you're told, got it?" She kissed him firmly on the lips. He nodded his head. "Good, now get dressed we have to leave in seven minutes." She broke away and headed towards Sophia's room.

Sylvie was shocked, Antonio was the most persistent person she had ever met she would give him that. Actually, she thought the doctor just got sick of the incessant four-year-old-esque whining from a forty-year-old grown man who is supposed to be a big scary Intelligence detective. The doctor had relented and agreed to let Antonio go back to work.

"Ha. One more week, told you I was fine." He seemed satisfied as he rubbed it in her face and held his arm out in front of her. She really didn't know what to say. He was gloating, he loved to win and he did win this round, he even convinced the doctor to remove the cast.

"Do you know how easily you could break it again if you fell or got into a fight?" She was not amused with this. "No boxing anytime soon, not until I say you can, and you keep it wrapped, do you understand?" She definitely felt like she was trying to reason with a toddler, this must be the side of Tonio's fits that everyone hates, the side where he actually wins, she thought.

He didn't like being told he couldn't box and gave her a pouty face. "Fine." She sighed, relieved that he at least agreed to no boxing.

"Hey babe, Ruzek's here, I'm leaving!" Antonio shouted up the stairs. Adam had texted him earlier wanting to know if he wanted to meet up with the guys at Molly's before he officially came back. "Okay, be quiet when you come in, if you wake her she's yours for the night." She warned. Sophia had decided she no longer liked sleeping through the night and rather enjoyed hanging out with mommy and daddy all night instead.

"Where are we going man? Molly's is back that way." Adam had taken the wrong turn three times claiming to be looking for some store that he had never heard of. "Just hold on, it's up here I need to grab something." Adam had a mission and he needed to fulfill it.

They had finally arrived at Molly's after Adam had insisted driving an hour out of the way to some little store to pick up something Antonio still wasn't sure what it was. He was annoyed and wanted to get inside to grab a beer and relax.

Antonio walked through the door and the whole place erupted in cheers. He just stood there stunned, Sylvie walked up to him and handed him a beer. "Surprise" she whispered in his ear as she hugged him. "What is going on?" he asked amazed by all his friends.

Herrmann pounded on the bar to get everyone's attention. "So you might be wondering what everyone's doing here and well, it occurred to some of us simple folks that we've neglected a couple of our own." Antonio put his arm around Sylvie and she leaned into him. "Now, those two over there, Brett and Dawson, got married and had a baby and we didn't celebrate with them." Everyone started clapping. "But that was a while back, so what we're really gonna celebrate tonight is Tony making a full recovery and going back to work on Monday." Herrmann raised a beer and everyone followed suite. "Congratulations on everything, we love you both." Antonio leaned over to Sylvie and kissed her as everyone surrounded them, hugging and congratulating both of them.

Antonio was finally able to pull Sylvie to the side. "Did you know about this?" she smiled and nodded her head. "Why didn't you say something?" he was still shocked.

She shrugged. "It was a surprise." She was sipping her drink, already on her third one; she fully planned on having a good night.

"Go hang with the guys, have fun, I'm going to gossip with Kim and Gabby." She pushed her way past him and gave him a smirk. He watched her walk away, she glanced back at him and he knew she was playing with him.

Antonio walked up and pressed his body against Sylvie's back and put his chin on her shoulder. She was sitting at a table at the back of the bar. "Hey ladies." He grinned at them, wrapping one hand around Sylvie under the table. "What are we talking about?" he slipped his hand under her dress and started drawing a line with his finger up her inner thigh.

Her breath hitched and she cleared her throat, he smirked but made sure not to make eye contact with her, he continued agonizingly slow as far as he could. He was pretending to be interested in whatever Stella was saying but really he couldn't care less. He turned his head as he hooked his finger under the edge of her panties and whispered in her ear making sure only she could hear, "Game on." He pulled his hand back and just walked away.

"Rude." Stella pouted, "He didn't even let me finish what I was saying." Sylvie giggled and Gabby gave her a weird look. "What?" Sylvie asked innocently. "Nope, uh huh, nothing, I don't want to know." Gabby was shaking her head while taking a sip of her drink.

Sylvie glanced over her shoulder to see where Antonio had gone and caught his eye; he was sitting at a table by the front door with some guys from district and Kelly. He winked at her. She was five drinks in and was a little fuzzy but she couldn't let him win, she was still mad about him getting his way with the doctor.

"Hey, I'll be right back." Sylvie sauntered toward Antonio and threw her arm over his shoulder standing next to him as he sat on the stool.

"Do you mind if I distract him for one minute?" she smiled sweetly and held up one finger at the guys at the table. Antonio looked at her and smirked, "What's up?" She placed one hand on his thigh and held up a napkin in her other hand in front of his ear as if she was going to tell him a secret. "I just want to make sure this is still works instantly?" She whispered as she gently nibbled his earlobe then kissed behind his ear. He readjusted uncomfortably on his stool and cleared his throat, "Umm, yeah, I would say it does." She smirked, nodded, and started to walk away, "Good." She knew she was in trouble for that one.

"Sorry, I'm back, had to ask Tonio something" she giggled. She looked over her shoulder and Antonio was glaring at her drinking his beer, she smiled and returned her attention to the table. "Whatever you two are doing, just stop." Gabby seemed a little annoyed.

"We're not doing anything." She giggled again.

"I'm going to get another round, be back in a minute." Gabby headed toward the bar.

"She's grumpy Gabby tonight." Sylvie made a pouty face at Kim. Kim shook her head. "She thinks you and Antonio are up to something." Sylvie giggled again. "Maybe we are, maybe we aren't, wouldn't you like to know?" she pointed her finger at Kim and smiled. "Besides it's my party, I'm having fun."

Gabby returned with the round, Sylvie took hers happily and started sipping the straw. She turned to find Antonio again but he wasn't in his seat, she looked around and spotted him at the bar standing next to a woman she didn't recognize, she watched him for a minute. He stepped in between the bar stools and leaned into her, obviously flirting. Sylvie turned back to the table and Stella, Kim, and Gabby were staring at her.

"Um, honey, are you gonna do something about that?" Stella was pointing at Antonio. "If you're not, I am. What the hell is he doing? Who is that?" Kim was a little pissed.

"We'll see how far he takes it." Sylvie giggled and shrugged, she knew he was trying to make her jealous.

"What? Sylvie, honey, your husband is obviously flirting with another woman. Someone in here is going to try to kick his ass if you don't go take care of it." Stella attempted to point out but Sylvie didn't seem to care. Kim, Stella, and Gabby were all taken aback by her nonchalance to the situation.

"It'll be okay." She took a big sip of her drink and Gabby and Stella just looked at her like she was completely insane. "Hold on, I'll be right back." She had thought of her next move.

Antonio was still at the bar, he was whispering in the woman's ear when Sylvie appeared. Antonio set back, crossed his arms, and smirked at her but she ignored him. "Hi, I'm Sylvie, I've never seen you here before. Are you a first responder?" the woman looked annoyed with her. "Sheila, I just started at firehouse 16, paramedic." She was clearly not wanting to talk to Sylvie but Sylvie persisted. "Oh, that's awesome, I'm a paramedic at 51, maybe we'll get to ride together sometime, my current partner is my sister-in-law. Are you from here? I'm not, I'm a transplant from Fowlerton, Indiana; Chicago is such a great place though."

Sylvie was really enjoying this. Antonio sat on the stool and just watched with an amused expression, the woman kept trying to make eye contact with him but his eyes never left Sylvie. "No, born and raised Chicago." She was not amused with this guy's attention on Sylvie now.

"Are you married, kids?" Sylvie smiled at her. "No, just me and my dog."

Sylvie pulled out her phone and found the picture she was looking for. "Oh, that sounds lonely, I got married last October actually this is supposed to be a party for us and we had a baby too, it's kinda like a combo party to include my husband going back to work from being shot also, he's a detective." She shook her head.

"Do you wanna see a picture? Here look, that's me, my husband, and our three kids, Diego, Eva, and the baby is Sophia, I just love them so much." She turned the phone to the woman; it took a second for her to figure it out. She looked from the phone to Antonio, back to the phone, to Sylvie and repeated. "You're his wife?" like she needed more convincing. "I guess, at least that's what the marriage certificate says. He has an ex-wife too, Laura, we're good friends, you'd probably like her, she can be a little crazy though." Sylvie smiled. "He's not wearing a ring." This dumb bitch is gonna start pointing shit out. "Oh, yeah, no, we don't wear rings, we got married when I was deathly ill and pregnant with our last child, I almost died." Sylvie was trying extremely hard to sound genuine, it was hard. Antonio just continued to sit there and stare at Sylvie with a smirk.

Sylvie leaned in to Antonio and whispered in his ear. "Try harder next time." And returned her attention to the woman. "Well, it was really nice to meet you, I should get back to my friends, you're welcome to join us if you want." she held out her hand. The woman cautiously took it and shook it looking at her like she was completely insane. "Have a nice night." Sylvie waved and headed back toward her table.

Stella was clapping, "Nicely handled, not even a yell or a slap, bravo." Sylvie smiled. "Her name's Sheila, paramedic, house 16, she's single, from Chicago, and has a dog. Tonio can keep flirting if he wants too." She said uninterested. She glanced over her shoulder and found Sheila alone at the bar looking confused and Antonio back at the table with Kelly and she winked at him.

Antonio returned to his table well aware that he had lost that one, he knew she was good but to keep it that together six or seven drinks in, he was impressed, he had expected a little jealously to bubble up but nothing.

"Dude, what was that?" Kelly looked a little pissed. "Nothing, you don't want to know, trust me." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Actually, I kinda do, you were flirting with that chick at you're fucking whatever this party is, in front of Sylvie." Kelly sounded more than a little pissed.

"Relax, we're playing a game, I lost that one." He laughed. Kelly just stared at him then shook his head. "Okay, but it better be a game to her too, she better not get upset or hurt." He said pointing back at Sylvie. "You know me better than that, I'd never hurt her." He tipped his beer at Kelly.

Sylvie thought of her next move and jumped off the barstool. "I need to use the restroom, be right back." She headed toward the back.

She reemerged and found Antonio back at the bar ordering another beer from Herrmann. She walked up to him and slipped her hand in his front pocket. She whispered in his ear. "Those are for you." He looked at her confused and she left to go back to her table.

Reaching into his pocket he felt what she had put in there, he snapped his head up looking at her as she walked away. She went back to the table never looking back at him. He thanked Herrmann for the beer and made a beeline for Sylvie. "We need to talk now." He whispered at her.

"No, I'm talking to my friends, you can wait." She was taunting him. "No, I really think we should talk now." He sounded serious. "Like I said, I'm busy, now go back to your table and I will come over when I'm ready." She smirked at him and deliberately dropped her napkin on the floor. "Oops, I better grab that." She started to get off the stool. He pushed her firmly, maybe a little too hard, back down onto the stool. "You better not fucking move." He growled earning another smirk from her.

"Hey, what the hell, don't put your hands on her or talk to her like that." Gabby got up to get in between the two, confused by his behavior, she had never seen him act like this before. "It's okay Gabby, relax, he didn't mean it like that, besides he's going back to his table now." Sylvie said grinning at Antonio the whole time. "You better keep your ass on that stool." He whispered in her ear and went back towards his table.

He couldn't take it, game over, he was done, he just sat there and stared at her from across the bar. He couldn't even enjoy the rest of his night. "Dude, what's wrong you've been glaring at the girls for thirty minutes." Kelly had been trying to get Antonio's attention for the last half hour and he hadn't heard a word he had said.

"Not the girls, Sylvie, she won." He was not amused. "Do I even want to know what that means?" Kelly chuckled. Antonio shook his head. "Even if you wanted too, I wouldn't tell you." He was obviously pissed.

"It couldn't have been that bad, it's Sylvie." Kelly tried to reason with him. "She's PG, come on." He chuckled.

Tonio snorted, "Yeah, she has you guys fooled." Kelly laughed "And I was worried about Sylvie getting hurt, I should have been worried about you."

"Okay, I tried to stay out of it, what the hell is going on? Why are you two fighting?" Gabby didn't know what to think, Sylvie didn't seem upset but Antonio was clearly pissed about something. "We're not fighting, why would you say that?" She giggled she was not sober enough to have a serious conversation.

"Why is Antonio pissed at you? He's been glaring at you since he left the table." Kim really wanted to know; she had never seen Antonio mad at Sylvie before, this was new. "I won." She laughed and took another drink. "What the hell does that mean?" This whole thing confused Gabby. "He lost." She giggled and almost fell off her stool. "Oops, Tony said I can't leave the stool, have to stay where dad told me." She was in a fit of giggles trying and failing to steady herself.

"You can leave the stool if you want." Stella informed her. "I can?" she was surprised. "Yes, you can do whatever you want, you're a big girl, Antonio can't tell you want to do." Sylvie's eyes got big like she came to a realization. "I can. I need another drink, I'm going to the bar, who wants to go with me?" she raised her hand and pouted when no one raised one too. "I don't want to go alone, Kim come with me, please." She begged. Kim agreed thinking it was probably for the best.

Kim shoved her way to the front of the crowd at the bar pulling Sylvie by the hand behind her. There were no stools open so they squeezed between the people, Sylvie had lost Kim somewhere in the crowd. Sylvie wanted to talk to Herrmann so she shoved herself between the barstools in between two guys and reached over the counter to get Herrmann's attention, "Hey, can you make mine a little extra?" He nodded at her.

Still leaned over the bar she felt a hand touch the back of her ass and she spun around fully expecting Antonio but the guy to her right was smiling at her. She didn't recognize him, he must not have been a regular or he would have never touched her, she thought.

"Excuse me, don't touch me." She was a little unsteady. He chuckled, "Well you put your ass right up next to me, I thought you wanted me to." He went to reach for her ass again.

Sylvie was just about to slap the guy when she felt a hand wrap around her arm and saw a flash of the guy being dragged toward the front door by Kelly. She was being dragged toward the back door. "Stop, where are we going? Let me go." She was fighting him but it was useless, he was much stronger. He shoved her up against the brick wall and pressed his body fully against hers.

"What the fuck Tonio?" she was still trying to get away from him. He was staring her straight in the eyes, she couldn't discern the look he was boring into her. Rage-maybe a little she was hoping not at her, fear-no that couldn't be right, hatred-she thought she could see a glimpse, jealousy-yes, that was it, he was fucking jealous.

"He was touching you." He growled at her, pissed didn't began to describe how he was feeling. Sylvie smirked at him, "Or did you just not like losing tonight?" she kissed him, hard.

Kelly, Kim, Gabby, and Stella came through the back door. "He's out, I don't think he'll come back, I didn't recognize him." Kelly informed Antonio. Antonio nodded at him and stepped back from Sylvie letting her off the wall.

"What the hell is going on?" Gabby was not amused with how this night was turning out. "I told you nothing, we're fine." Sylvie chuckled, clearly drunk. Kelly snorted and Gabby turned to glare at him. "Kelly?" she wanted an explanation. He held up his hands in surrender, "Hey, they're adults, what weird games they play in public is between them and besides I'm positive you don't want to know." He laughed. She got a disgusted look on her face and pretended that she was going to vomit. "Yup, okay, nope, should have stayed out of it, can't do it, I'm done." And she spun around and headed back in, everyone else following behind.

Sylvie was in a fit of giggles, she could barely stand up. Antonio grabbed her and put her back up against the wall his body against hers, his knee between her legs, and reached into his pocket. He pulled out her panties dangling them from his finger in front of her face, "You thought this was real funny, didn't you?" She grinned and nodded her head. "Do you know what this did to me?" She shook her head and giggled.

"Drove me crazy knowing you had no panties on and all them guys everywhere." He shoved the them back in his pocket. "Jealous, much?" She tried to sound serious. "You have no idea." He breathed into her ear. She was once again giggling uncontrollably. "If I had known it would drive you so crazy I would have done it the night I made you ask me out." He smirked at her. "I wouldn't have known what to do with you, looking all sweet and innocent, yeah, they have no idea do they?"

She shook her head, "Do you want me to let them know?, I can." she pretended to try to pull away. "I think Gabby would die, better not." He pressed her harder into the wall.

"I think we really need to head home, now." He breathed, his forehead pressed to hers, his hands in her hair. "There's always the car." She kissed him. He pulled back and cocked an eyebrow at her, asking if she was serious. She nodded and he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her toward the car.


	19. Chapter 19

Birthday

"Da dum, da da dam, da da da." Sophia was talking to herself in her baby babble as she attempted to walk holding on to the furniture. "I think she's saying dada." Sylvie pointed out to Antonio as they were laying on the floor playing with Sophia and watching TV. Sophia was turning one tomorrow and they had a big birthday party planned for her. "Of course she is, I'm her favorite person in the whole wide world." He picked her up and held her above him. "Aren't I baby girl?" She giggled at him and he sat her down on his stomach.

Sophia was pint-sized with big blue eyes, a headful of untamable, brown, curly hair and she was the happiest tiny person on the planet, she was always smiling and laughing. She hardly ever cried but when she discovered she could make sounds, she was unstoppable; she "talked" nonstop in her baby babble. She was very shy preferring only a handful of people who she would let hold her or even talk to her. She loved her family and always slept in bed with her big sister because she refused to sleep anywhere else. She was very spoiled but that was okay.

"Can you believe it's been a year?" Antonio said running his fingers through Sophia's hair as she laid back against him drinking her bottle. Sylvie had been watching her husband and her daughter laying there completely natural, thinking how different life would have been if she would have never gotten pregnant. She probably wouldn't be married, maybe not even with Antonio, and definitely no Sophia, that last thought made her heart hurt because Sophia may have been a surprise and it may have almost killed her but she couldn't imagine her not being a part of her life. "No, it seems like a minute." She sighed; she couldn't believe how fast it had gone.

"Can I ask you something?" Sylvie asked nervously, it was a question she had wanted to ask for a long time. Antonio looked at her, "Yeah, anything, always, is something wrong?" She shook her head. "No, but don't take it the wrong way okay?" he nodded. "What do you think would have happened if I had never gotten pregnant?"

Antonio stopped running his fingers through Sophia's hair and just stared at the TV. He had thought about it before but preferred not to. Yeah, he really didn't want anymore kids and the marriage was fast and on a whim and the time leading up to Sophia being born was the most terrified and exhausted he had ever been in his life but the thought of these two girls not being in his life was absolutely impossible and not having this home with Sylvie and his kids simply could not exist in his reality.

Sylvie was nervous; Antonio had went completely silent and had been staring at the TV for what seemed like an eternity. "Hey, it's okay if you don't want to answer." She said. Her words startled him out of his thoughts and he moved Sophia off him and crawled over to where Sylvie was lying on the floor and laid beside her. "No, I was just thinking, sorry." He rolled to his side and propped himself up on his elbow to look down at her. "I've thought about it, we were in a crazy situation, a what-if is natural to think about, hell I'm sure our friends think it too." He grabbed her hand and brought it up to his chest.

"Look, we got back together before we even knew you were pregnant, we were doing good, I think it would have eventually led here, actually I'm sure of it. I had made up my mind that we were going to work out no matter how hard you resisted." He winked at her. "We wouldn't have Sophia and probably not be married yet but we would definitely be engaged because there was no way I was letting you go again." He kissed her hand and she nodded.

"And I know I wasn't sure about kids and it was all twisted and dark for a while and I lived on virtually no sleep and fear until she was born but I wouldn't change anything, I would go through it all over again if it would always lead to laying here in the floor with you and Sophia, Eva and Diego upstairs, and having a party tomorrow with all our friends and family." He laid his head down facing Sylvie and pulled her towards him putting his forehead against hers. "Look, we're here, it doesn't matter how or why, it only matters that we love each other and our kids, okay? Nothing will ever change that."

She smiled at him. "Thanks babe, that's exactly the answer I needed." She leaned over and kissed him. Sophia crawled over and shoved herself between her mom and dad and left a big, wet, open-mouthed, sloppy kiss on Antonio's cheek and rolled on her back and started babbling away.

Eva stumbled down the hallway carrying Sophia on her hip and knocked on her dad's bedroom door, "Come in" her dad said sleepily. Eva opened the door and went to the bed and sat Sophia down and started to walk away, "She's been up since six talking and playing, I need sleep, I'm going back to bed, will you wake me up at ten please?" Antonio grunted and Eva left. Sophia crawled up to the top of the bed and patted Sylvie's head. Sylvie uncovered her head "Happy Birthday baby, what are you doing up at six-thirty? It's way too early, daddy's gonna be grumpy, it's his day off." Sophia just stared at her and patted her head again.

Antonio rolled over and grabbed Sophia and pulled her under the covers against him as she giggled. "I could never be grumpy on this day" he kissed her on the cheek and tickled her. "Happy Birthday" she was laughing and kicking trying to get away from the tickles. "Are you hungry? Let's go get some breakfast and mommy can go back to sleep." He said holding her up above him as she looked down at him with those eyes he couldn't resist and babbled to him. "Mommy agrees, love you" Sylvie said and covered her head back up.

"Eva, Diego, can you come help me please?" Sylvie yelled from the bottom of the stairs. Eva came down the stairs and Sylvie handed Sophia to her, "Can you please, please, please put her dress on her and put a bow in her hair?" she begged her. Eva smiled and gladly took Sophia, "Of course, you ready to get dressed for your party, SoSo." Eva said as she walked back up stairs.

Sylvie moved back to the kitchen to find her phone guessing Diego didn't hear her. She texted him and he came right down. "Dad wants you to please move the couches against the walls in the front room and bring all the folding chairs up from the basement before he gets home, do you need help or can you do it?" he nodded. "I got it." Sylvie was relieved she really didn't have time, people were supposed to be there in an hour and she felt like she had nothing done. "Thanks for helping" she said and went back to finishing her stuff.

Antonio returned home from picking up the cake and balloons just as Gabby and Matt had arrived. "Cutting it a little close with that cake aren't you?" Gabby teased. "Funny, can you help Sylvie finish? The baker didn't have the cake ready when they were supposed to and I haven't been able to help." He was annoyed. Gabby went to help Sylvie finish up getting the food completed. Eva and Diego had helped with the decorations, Sophia was having a unicorn party and it looked like a unicorn had thrown up rainbows everywhere.

Everyone started to arrive and Sophia was clinging to Antonio. She had been to parties and was used to being around people at district and the firehouse but she was still skeptical of them, she would bury her head in Antonio's shoulder anytime anyone tried to talk to her. Antonio went in search of Sylvie and found her talking to Adam and Kim; they must have slipped past him when he was talking to someone else. Sophia saw Adam and started squirming and trying to get away from Antonio and lunged for Adam.

Adam took her and she gave him a sloppy kiss on the nose. "Hey Birthday girl, I love you too." He said tickling her and she squirmed. "Da dum, da dum" she said as she patted him on the cheek. Sylvie cracked up, "Umm, babe I think we were wrong last night, I think she was saying Adam." He did not look impressed. "You were saying da da last night right baby girl?" he asked her as he attempted to coax her back into his arms. "Da dum, da da dum" she said again and clung to Adam. "Awe, I really am your favorite person." Adam was laughing.

"There is no way her first word is Adam, no, not happening." Antonio seemed a little jealous. Kim and Sylvie were snickering. "It's not funny." Antonio was pouting. "Come on it is and besides it's better than what Diego's was." She teased, Antonio had told her how when Diego and Eva were little he didn't think much about cussing occasionally in front of them and it back fired when Diego's first word was "fuck" and he said it constantly for three months straight.

Adam slapped him on the back, "Hey, if it makes you feel better, I'll teach my first kid to say Tony first, okay?" he chuckled. "Uh, no you're not." Kim laughed. "I guess if it had to be someone else at least its you, I would have been pissed if she said Otis or something first." He said reluctantly.

Over the last year Adam and Kim had become the two people him and Sylvie came to rely on. They were always there, after Sophia was born, they helped with errands, brought food, and just hung out damn near every night. Kim was his partner and he loved her completely but Adam had weaseled himself under the wire and became his best friend. He had other friends, Hank, Matt, Jay, Atwater and some others from the firehouse and district but Adam was the one who he knew without a doubt he could count on in his personal life, he was just there. And Adam loved his family just as much as he did and most importantly Sophia loved him, once she was in his arms there was little chance she was going to leave them without bribery or Adam handing her off, which wasn't very likely either.

Adam kissed Sophia on the cheek, "Hey partner, I think you need to go back to daddy, I can't hog you today." he handed her back to Antonio, she pouted for a moment and turned her attention back to her dad and started babbling to him. He decided to make the rounds with her as Sylvie tried to keep up with the food.

"Hey SoSo, I haven't seen you in weeks!" Laura held out her hands and Antonio handed Sophia to her.

"Thanks for inviting me. I've missed her." Laura said rubbing Sophia's back as she hugged her. "No problem, maybe she can spend the night with you one of Sylvie's shift nights, talk to her about it, I'm sure she'll be fine with it." Antonio was glad he could finally be in a room with her and have an actual conversation. It was all still a little bizarre though, willingly handing his ex-wife his child with his current wife and offering for her to spend the night, considering a year ago he had a restraining order preventing her from seeing any of them. They had come a long way since screaming matches and custody wars. "I would like that, it's been a while since we've done that, right SoSo? Maybe Sissy will spend the night too and we'll have a girls night?" Sophia just laid there with her head on Laura's shoulder.

"We better finish making the rounds, Sylvie's in the kitchen, I think." He took Sophia back and went to find the next person that she may or may not interact with.

Sophia smashed her mini cake between her fingers and shoved her whole hand in her mouth fully enjoying the sugary sweet icing, she had never had sweets before so it was new and she loved it, she pulled the cake closer and shoved her whole face in, earning cheers and laughter from the whole group, she was covered from head to toe in cake and icing. "She's going to need a bath before we do presents." Sylvie laughed as she snapped pictures. "I can run her up real quick, if you want." Antonio offered as he pulled his very messy daughter out of her highchair and headed for the stairs.

There were so many presents, what does a one year old need with so many toys? Antonio thought to himself as he stood there staring at the massive pile he would have to haul up the stairs later. Sophia had a blast opening everything but she was more interested in the noise the wrapping and tissue paper made then the actual presents themselves. He just shook his head, thankful that there were so many people who cared about Sophia.

It had been a long day of never-ending people, food, cake, presents, and fun but Sylvie was exhausted. She went in search of Antonio and the kids and found them all in the front room. "I need help cleaning." She said as she walked into the front room. Diego held his finger up to his mouth and pointed to Antonio asleep laying on the couch with Sophia asleep on his chest. She tiptoed around and found Eva asleep on the floor right below them. Diego got up and motioned for Sylvie to follow him. "I'll help you, just tell me what to do." She pulled him into a hug. "Thank you for always helping with Sophia and anything I ask for without complaining but let's just leave it for tomorrow, it'll be fine." Diego agreed and headed up to his room.

Sylvie grabbed two blankets and put one over Eva and kicked off her shoes and shoved onto the couch next to Antonio and cuddled into his side and threw the blanket over the three of them. He woke up and kissed her on the head. "What time is it?" he yawned. "Nine" she snuggled a little deeper and he readjusted his arm under her head. "We should head up to bed." She shook her head into his side "I don't want to, I'm comfortable here, can we stay for a little bit?" she was tired and didn't want to move. "Sure." He closed his eyes and fell back asleep.

Halloween

It was Halloween and Sylvie and Gabby had been on non-stop calls all day, the crazies were out in full force and there was a full moon to top it all off. Sylvie was staring out the window not paying attention to what Gabby was saying. "Hey earth to Brett? What's going on?" Sylvie looked over at her and shook her head, "Nothing, I just feel bad for missing Sophia tonight, Tonio probably won't be off in time either, he got called in, they had a case jump off." Sylvie sighed.

"She won't remember it anyway, she just turned one like three weeks ago, she'll be fine." Gabby pointed out. Sylvie went back to staring out the window. "We work Christmas this year too, do you think it makes me a bad mom that I'm going to miss holidays as she grows up? What if she hates me later when I can't always be there or when me and Antonio both get tied up and miss a holiday?"

"No, you're a great mom and you guys will work around your schedules, you're not the first to be in this predicament besides she'll know she has two heroes as parents who are out saving lives." Gabby smiled at her and reached over to pat her on the shoulder. "I guess, I still feel bad though and if he can't get off then I won't get to see her tonight because he won't let Eva drive her car until he gets new brakes on it." She huffed.

They made their way back to the firehouse at six hoping that they would be able to help hand out Halloween candy without the bells going off for a while. It was about seven and there had been a steady stream of kids for the last hour and the bells had not interrupted them. Tonio had texted that they were tied up and it would be impossible for him to get off, she was upset but kept smiling for the kids. She was spaced out when the bells rang; she finished shoving some candy in kids' bags and ran for the ambo.

It was a quick call, they didn't need to transport so they were able to return back to quarters. They pulled in and noticed an unmarked car out front. "I don't recognize it, do you?" Sylvie asked Gabby. Gabby shook her head, "Maybe a cop brought their kid, who knows?" Gabby parked the rig and went to start inventory and Sylvie headed inside. She walked into the common room and was shocked. There sat Adam and Sophia on the couch watching TV. "What are you doing here with her? I thought the team was caught up?" she walked over and picked Sophia up and kissed her, she was wearing her kitty cat costume.

"Tony and Kim are but I was able to weasel myself out and I was told in no uncertain terms that I was to go get her and bring her here." He smiled and she gave him a hug. "Thank you, I missed her and felt bad that I was going to miss her first real Halloween." She was so happy.

"Come on baby, let's go see some people." She carried Sophia out to the apparatus floor where she knew Kelly and Gabby were, Adam following behind. "Look it's Uncle Kelly." She said as Sophia reached for him. "What's up munchkin?" he said as he tickled her and she squirmed and giggled. "Hey Ruzek, what's been going on?" Kelly shook Adam's hand. "Ah, nothing much, just fulfilling my orders to bring Sophia to Sylvie or risk the wrath of Tony." He laughed. "Yeah, that's a wrath we all try like hell to avoid." Kelly chuckled.

"Oh my god, she looks so frigging cute, come to Tia SoSo." Gabby grabbed Sophia from Severide and held her up so she could look at her. "Adam did you bring her?" he nodded. "Yeah, Tony is quite convincing, not that I need to be convinced to hang out with her." Sophia reached for him, "Da dum." Adam grabbed her. "I still can't believe you were her first word." Gabby laughed. "Well at least we know she has impeccable taste." He quipped.

"Let's take her out front so she can get some candy and everyone else can see her." Sylvie started walking toward the front of the house and the bells went off, everyone stopped to listen, they called for truck and ambo. Gabby kissed Sophia and told her bye and took off for the rig. "Don't wait around, just get some candy and take her home, thanks for bringing her, bye baby girl." She kissed Sophia on the forehead and kissed Adam on the cheek and ran for the rig.

"That was such a tease, I got to see her for a whole five minutes." Sylvie was pouting as she stared out the window on the way to the call. "At least Adam brought her, you could have not saw her at all." Gabby pointed out. "I know I just feel bad, maybe it's because this is the first set of holiday's were having to work around." She sighed. "It'll get easier, I promise." Gabby smiled over at her.

Christmas

It was five days before Christmas and all the Dawson's were opening presents. This was the only day both Antonio and Sylvie's schedules would sync until after New Years so they decided to just do Christmas early. "Are you guys sure you're okay with this?" Sylvie asked Diego and Eva. "Yeah, this is awesome." Diego said. "It's not like we believe in Santa and besides we understand, Dad had to work a couple Christmas's when we were little too." Eva tried to reassure Sylvie.

Sylvie looked over at Antonio slightly panicked. "What are we going to do about Santa when she understands?" Antonio put Sophia down in the floor and she toddled over to Eva and started "helping" pull Eva's new clothes out of a gift box.

"We'll do what me and Laura did with them. We told them that because I was a cop and was saving people and couldn't be there on Christmas that Santa made a special trip for kids of cops." He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "That's a good idea." She was impressed. "Yeah, it's a cop trick, someone else told me about it." He smiled at her. "Okay I feel a little better, I still don't like both of us missing it at the same time." She snuggled into him and watched as the kids went through their presents.

Christmas day shift had started at six in the morning, it was cold the temperature hovering around twelve degrees with a wind chill of negative ten and seven inches of snow already on the ground and another six to twelve inches forecasted throughout the day, it was going to be a hellish shift, hopefully they wouldn't need to leave the house often and power to the neighborhood would stay on. "It's going to suck when we get a call." Sylvie said to Gabby as they stood there changing into their uniforms. "Yeah, I know, ugh." Gabby groaned.

The day had been slow, truck and ambo had been called out twice to assist on wrecks but no injuries meant the girls could return to quarters and not freeze their butts off in the cold. It was two pm when the bells sounded calling ambo out on a solo mission.

The roads were bad and Gabby was having trouble keeping control of the ambo. "I need you to reach around and grab my seatbelt and buckle it." She instructed Sylvie. The roads were really scaring her and they were coming up on a curvy embankment that dropped pretty far. Sylvie managed to get Gabby's seatbelt on and promptly buckled hers.

"Do you think we should just head back and call it in that the roads are too bad?" Sylvie was hanging on, the ambo was heavy so it shouldn't be all over the place like this; the roads must have a solid inch of ice under the snow. "I think we're fine, we'll just go slow." Gabby looked at Sylvie and gave her a small smile to reassure her.

The ambo had cleared the last turn around the embankment when Gabby suddenly threw her arm out to block Sylvie, screamed, and hit the breaks as hard as she could causing the ambo to slide and start to spin. Sylvie's popped her head up from a text Antonio had sent just in time to see a large black pickup truck sideway, sliding right at them and there was nowhere to escape. The truck hit them full force in the side and sent them through the guardrail and over the embankment. Gabby reached out and found Sylvie's sleeve and held onto it for dear life. The ambo rolled what seemed like a dozen times before landing on its side and being hit again by the truck as it rolled down behind them. The truck landed upside down half on top of the ambo.

Sylvie blinked, she was confused, it was freezing and her head and shoulder were on fire. She could tell she was in the ambo but why was it cold and why was everything so fuzzy? Her head started to clear a little and she remembered they had crashed. She panicked and tried to move but she was still buckled in and she was sideways. "Gabby, Gabby, are you okay?" she didn't hear an answer. She could see her, her arm looked like it was broken, fuck she thought. She tried to move her legs, no pain; they must be fine, she thought. She did a quick check on herself, dislocated shoulder-yes, collarbone- maybe broke, concussion-yes, head bleeding-yes, that was all she could discern.

She attempted to undo her seatbelt but her weight was making it impossible, she needed to lift herself up and unbuckle at the same time, but she was down an arm so she would need to find a way to improvise. "Think Sylvie, fuck." She used her legs to push up against the dashboard and was able to get the seatbelt undone. She let herself down slowly and crouched next to Gabby to check her vitals and check her over for injuries quickly. Vitals-okay, broken arm-definitely, broken tibia-pretty sure, scratches and scrapes on face, head wound-not horrible, concussion-guaranteed. "Gabby can you hear me?" no answer, she was unresponsive. Sylvie checked her pupils, they were fine. "Okay concussion probably knocked her out she thought.

She knew she needed to get out and get to the back of the ambo and check the passengers of the truck. The windshield was partially missing so she braced herself and kicked it the rest of the way out. She ran around to the truck to check the driver, there was no one there, damn it, he must have been ejected. She looked around the best she could but he was nowhere to be found. "Okay Sylvie, don't worry about that, you'll find him, you need to focus and get Gabby covered up or hypothermia will set in." she was talking to herself out loud.

She opened the back of the ambo and started to cry, everything was everywhere and it looked like stuff had been thrown out, the doors must have opened while it was rolling. She climbed in and tried to find the thermal heat blankets, they weren't in their spot, she spotted a sling and grabbed it, carefully sliding in on and placing her arm in it. "Fuck, okay, I need to radio dispatch." Still talking out loud to herself. She climbed out and ran back around to the cab and climbed back in and found the radio. She pushed the button and nothing happened. She tried it again and achieved the same result. "No, no, no, no this can't be happening." It was damaged, she began to cry again but she remembered her cell phone and grabbed for it in her vest. "Please work." She begged it. She hit call on the first number that popped up, it was Antonio. "All circuits are busy please try your call again later." She started to cry harder and dialed again, it was the same recording. She checked her phone for Internet connection, nothing; text messages weren't going to go through either.

"Okay, pull it together Sylvie." She wiped her eyes and climbed back through the window and ran back around to the back. She pulled the gurney out and took the sheet and blanket that was strewn about and put them to the side, she got down and opened the side compartment praying to god that the spare blankets and sheets were in there, yes they were but they only had two. She knew she had to do something or they would freeze to death fast out here. She found a neck brace and grabbed the blankets and sheets and ran for Gabby, she slipped the brace on her and tucked the blankets around the best she could and used the sheets to block out the wind.

She decided to check her phone again and dialed Antonio, it rang "Thank you Lord," she said. It continued to ring and ring and ring, finally it picked up "Tonio? Tonio? Tonio can you hear me?" There was no answer, it was just dead, she tried again four more times with the same result. Then decided to try 911 and the firehouse multiple times with the line being dead. It was cold and she knew she needed to get help, the guys were expecting them to be gone awhile because of the roads and wouldn't come looking for them anytime soon. She looked up at the hill to the road and knew she wouldn't make it up, especially with a dislocated shoulder.

"Okay need to find the heat blankets Sylvie, it's already been an hour, we'll freeze to death" She told herself and went to dig through the wreckage.

"Hey" Antonio said knocking on the doorframe of Voight's office. Voight looked up from his computer, "What's up?" Antonio held up his phone, "Circuits are down, I keep getting calls from Sylvie but the lines won't connect, when I try to call back it says all circuits busy, I'm gonna head over to 51 just to make sure everything's okay." Hank shifted in his chair. "Okay take Burgess with you, I'd rather none of you be on the streets alone." Antonio nodded, "Thanks, we'll be back."

Sylvie had abandoned the search for the blankets and returned back to the cab with Gabby. The pain was unbearable causing her to vomit; she felt lightheaded but refused to take any pain meds fearing she would pass out. She did her best to huddle her body with Gabby's under the thin blankets from the gurney and prayed the guys noticed they were gone or dispatch would alert them that they never made it to their call. She tried not to cry but the emotions took over and she sobbed.

The drive to the firehouse was slow to say the least; the usual ten-minute drive was nearly thirty minutes, even in the truck. "I bet everything's fine, she probably just wants to make sure you're safe, since we got called in." Kim smiled at Antonio trying to reassure him as they pulled up to the firehouse. "She doesn't call over and over when I'm on, she calls once then texts." He looked worried.

Opening the door to the firehouse, Antonio noticed the ambo wasn't there. "They're not here." He pointed out to Kim. He headed for the common room and spotted Cruz. "Hey Cruz, where are the girls?" Cruz shrugged, "They went out a while ago on a call." Antonio gave him a look, "How long is a while ago?" Cruz thought a moment, "Probably two hours or so."

Antonio just turned away from him and started toward Boden's office, Kim gave Cruz an apologetic look and mouthed 'Thank you' at him. Antonio didn't even knock, he walked straight in, "Boden, I need to know if the girls made it to their last call." He stated. "Dispatch would have notified me if they didn't, why what's going on?" Boden knew Antonio wouldn't just show up if he didn't have a legitimate reason.

"Sylvie's been calling over and over but the line won't connect, Cruz said they've been gone about two hours, so I need to know." He was starting to get nervous. "Okay follow me." Boden led them to the command center and radioed to dispatch and asked about the last call. Dispatch responded back, "We still have them in route, no response, communication is down to the rig." Boden looked at Antonio, "Go find Casey and Severide I think they're in the bunk room." Antonio took off running and found both men in their bunks and they all ran back to Boden.

"Ambo never made it to the last call, something's wrong, load up the guys, we're going to go follow their route and see what we can find." Chief gave his orders and they loaded up, Antonio and Kim rode with squad knowing his truck would be useless and wouldn't be able to keep up with the fire trucks.

Sylvie had lost track of time, she was trying to check Gabby's vitals and keep them both warm but she was so tired, she could feel herself falling asleep, she knew she shouldn't but she couldn't stay awake any longer.

"Where the hell are they?" Antonio was a nervous wreck staring out the windows trying to find any glimpse of the ambo. "We'll find them, I'm sure they're fine." Severide tried to reassure him.

Squad was leading the search followed by Truck. Twenty minutes in, Squad rounded a corned and Severide threw up his fist, stop he told Capp, the truck came to a stop. "What?" Antonio asked. Severide pointed to the guardrail. "Let's check that." Both trucks unloaded and walked to the edge. "Chief, we got a problem, it's ambo, they went over, there's another vehicle down there also." Severide yelled back over his shoulder.

Antonio thought he was going to lose it. He started pacing, his emotions starting to take over; he was watching Severide and Casey yelling orders at the others. Kim grabbed him and pulled him against her tight. "Focus, I need you to focus, don't panic, Sylvie and Gabby are fine, okay?" she pulled his face to look at her. He was crying, she had never seen him cry. "It's my sister and my wife." He just shook his head, he couldn't stop the tears. Kim held him against her.

Severide and Cruz were hooked up to ropes and were easing their way down the embankment, calling out for the girls, as they went, receiving no response back. Midway down Severide stopped Cruz and motioned to some brush, he could see a foot. They made their way over to the body and Severide radioed up to Boden. "Hey we got a body, male, he's gone, probably ejected from the truck." Severide and Cruz finished their descent knowing there was nothing they could do for the man.

"This is a disaster." Cruz said as him and Severide got to the bottom and could fully take in the scene. "Check the truck." Severide said pointing to it as he moved toward the ambo. "Clear." Cruz yelled and headed toward Severide.

"I got them, get over here now." Severide yelled at Cruz as he climbed through the windshield. "Chief I need two baskets down here now, they're alive, barely, and get two ambo's here now." He yelled into the radio. Cruz ran and grabbed the basket as Severide stripped his coat off and tried to lay it over them for some warmth, Sylvie stirred and opened her eyes, she stared at Severide confused for a moment. "Thank god, I thought we were dead." Her teeth chattering and her whole body shaking, she was beyond cold.

"We got you, just lay still, we're getting baskets down here." He was rubbing her arm trying to comfort her. Chief radioed down, "Severide, they're saying twenty minutes out for just one ambo, even longer on a second, we're going to transport." Severide moved to pick Sylvie up. "Is anything broken?" he asked before moving her. "She nodded. "Pretty sure my right collar bone is and my right shoulder is dislocated." He tried to be gentle as he grabbed her but she winced in pain and started to cry. He laid her in the basket and covered her with a warming blanket.

"Kelly please get Gabby up first, she's been out the entire time, her left arm and left leg are broken." He nodded and radioed that they were sending Gabby up first.

Antonio and Matt ran for the basket as soon as they saw it come over, Gabby looked bad, Antonio kissed her on the head as the two of them carried the basket toward Truck and loaded her in. "Kim can you ride with them? Stay with her, I have to stay with Sylvie." He was begging her. She hugged him again and wiped his tears. "They're going to be okay." She said and climbed into the truck with Gabby. He gave Matt a hug, "She'll be fine, just get her to the hospital, text me okay?" Matt looked a mess but was doing a brilliant job at keeping his emotions in check. "I will, let me know about Sylvie." Antonio nodded at him and Matt climbed in the truck and it took off.

Antonio stood at the edge nervously watching as Severide and Cruz came up with the basket containing Sylvie, he had no idea what to expect and judging by Gabby he didn't think she would be any better. As they reached the top he heard Sylvie calling for him. He exhaled, relieved he ran to the basket, she was crying. "Hey, it's okay, you're okay." He tried to comfort her as he knelt down next to her.

"Another Squad and Truck company are about two minutes out, they'll take over the recovery and clean up while we transport." Severide said as he patted Antonio's back.

"Recovery?" Sylvie's eyes darted to Severide and nodded to her, "Yeah, the driver of the truck was DOA, ejected." Antonio shushed her, "Don't worry about that now, we need to get you to the hospital." The guys loaded her in the truck and Antonio climbed in and sat next to her holding her hand.


	20. Chapter 20

The ride to the hospital was excruciatingly long. Antonio was sitting in the chair next to Sylvie's head holding her hand; with every bump Sylvie would gasp and squeeze as tight as she could, the pain in her shoulder was unbearable. She cried out when they hit a large pothole, "Hey, just look at me, we're almost there, just squeeze as hard as you can, okay?" Antonio was trying to comfort her knowing she hadn't received pain meds. Sylvie had locked eyes with Antonio as soon as they were in the truck and hadn't looked away since, she was hanging on to him for dear life, he was her safe place. "It hurts" she stuttered through chattering teeth, with tears running down the sides of her face. "I know," he said as he removed his large parka and laid it across her for extra warmth.

Antonio could hardly stand it, he was doing everything in his power to be strong for Sylvie but sitting there watching her as she cried out in pain at every little bump, was going to be the death of him. He had prayed when Sophia was born that he would never have to watch her suffer again but here she was in agonizing pain with no immediate relief and the only comfort he was able to offer was his hand. He needed her to squeeze all her pain into him, hoping it would bring her some relief but knowing it wouldn't.

"I need to tell you something." She said barely above a whisper, still shaking hard from being cold. "It can wait Syl, just try to relax, Med is just another couple minutes." He shushed her. She shook her head, "It really can't." Sylvie tried to relay the seriousness of the information as she stared into his eyes. "What can be more important than getting you to the hospital?" He pleaded with her, hoping she would just relax. She lifted her head slightly and looked at who could hear over the sound of the truck, part of squad stayed behind to help with the wreck so no one was close enough if Antonio leaned down to her.

"It's important, I promise." She gave him a small sad smile. He nodded and leaned down to her, stopping an inch from her face, still staring into her eyes. She looked nervous, almost sad, he thought. "I don't want you to find out at the hospital." She paused for a moment and broke her eye contact. "I'm pregnant." She was looking at the ceiling scared to look into his eyes.

They had never discussed more kids, she had mentioned it after Sophia was born but he had never responded. He had only told her one time when they were first dating that he really didn't want anymore. He was in his forties with two almost grown kids, they had chaotic and dangerous jobs with even more chaotic schedules, all their free time was spent with the three they already at had home. She also had a feeling he was terrified that if she were to get pregnant again it would go the same way it did before and if she was being honest so was she, she didn't know if she could do it again. She didn't want to see that look of disappointment/hurt/ betrayal/fear that she feared would be there if she looked at him.

Antonio squeezed her hand; she reluctantly turned her head to look at him. She couldn't read his expression; he had an exceptional poker face. "It's okay." Was all he said and squeezed her hand again. "I'm sorry." She whispered sadly, shaking her head slightly, tears reappearing down the sides of her face. He reached with his free hand and wiped her tears with his thumb, "I said it's okay, we'll talk later, this isn't the place for that." He tried to comfort her as he pushed her hair back out of her face and leaned all the way down and kissed her forehead.

Internally, Antonio was losing it but he needed to keep himself together for her, it wasn't solely her fault. They had fallen into a habit of not being careful even after she had warned him she wasn't on birth control, her reason he didn't remember at the moment. They were like ships passing in the night most days and things would just happen quickly, no thoughts or cares given. Having a sex life with a one-year-old, shift work, and on call pagers was erratic and haphazard at best. They should have discussed it and he was kicking himself for never being brave enough to bring it up. It wasn't even the not wanting kids part, he would have as many kids as she wanted if it would make her happy, as long as it didn't put her through hell again. That's what terrified him, the prospect of having to watch her suffer again and the very real possibility of losing her, so another baby just wasn't worth it to him.

The truck arrived at Med, everything happened fast, it was a blur, getting Sylvie out, getting her a room, tests being ordered, he just stood outside the door watching and letting the doctors do what they needed to. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around, it was Matt. "Hey bro, how's Gabby? I was going to come find you in a minute." Antonio turned towards him. "They took her to x-ray and to get an MRI, they told me to stay here, she woke up but she was very disoriented." He said sadly, shoving his hands in this pockets.

"How's Sylvie?" Matt asked hoping she was okay. "She's awake, not too bad considering, I guess. She thinks her collarbone is broken, her shoulder is dislocated, maybe a concussion, she needs stitches where she hit her head, and hypothermia. We'll see after she goes for x-rays and stuff." Antonio shrugged, he wasn't in the best of moods and wasn't up for small talk.

"Thank god, when I looked over that ledge and saw their rig, it took everything not to lose it, if it wasn't for Severide taking control and barking orders at me, I would have been a mess lying on the ground." Matt said as he put his hand on Antonio's shoulder. Antonio wasn't paying attention; he looked like his mind was a hundred miles away. "You okay?" Matt asked him, giving him a small shake. Antonio looked at him and nodded, "Yeah just have a lot on my mind but listen, um, I need to get back in here will you let me know when Gabby gets back down? I want to see her."

"Yeah, I will and I called your mom and let her know what is going on and warned her to stay home, I told her that we don't want her out on the streets getting hurt also." Matt informed him. "Thanks, I appreciate it. Uh, do you know where Kim is?" Antonio asked as he gave Matt a hug. "Yeah, she said she was going to update Voight or something, said she would be right back." Matt pointed in the direction of the elevators. "Okay, will you send her to me when she gets back?" Matt nodded and Antonio disappeared in to Sylvie's room.

Kim walked into the room but Antonio didn't hear her, he was sitting in the chair across from Sylvie's bed with his head between his legs and his fingers locked behind his head, he looked stressed. "Hey." She said softly not wanting to wake Sylvie. He sat up and lifted his head and looked at her, "Hey" he exhaled deeply and stood and stretched. "I got you a coffee." Kim handed him the coffee. He gladly took it knowing he was in for a long night. "How's she doing?" Kim looked over at Sylvie and back to Antonio. She had been going back and forth between Matt and Antonio all evening making sure they were okay.

Antonio huffed, "Better, I think, since they popped her shoulder back in and got her in a brace. Let's go somewhere else, she's exhausted." Antonio whispered and motioned for the door and they both headed for the waiting room. They walked slowly taking their time, neither one of them talking. Kim stopped suddenly and grabbed his arm turning him to face her. "What?" he was surprised by her action.

She pulled him in for a hug, "I just want you to know I love you and everything will be okay." She tightened her hug. "Thanks, this is just a shitty Christmas, Sylvie's been worried for months about missing it and this happens." He broke their hug and threw his arm around her shoulders and continued walking toward the waiting room. "And now the kids are worried, they want to be here for Gabby and Sylvie, they're pissed that I won't let them." He sighed. "I need to ask you for a favor." He said as they made it to the waiting room and took a seat at the table. "Yeah, anything, you know that." She assured him.

"Laura was supposed to pick the kids up this morning for Christmas and they were going to stay until tomorrow but the roads were too bad so they're at home and they have Sophia with them, I was supposed to pick her up from Laura when I got off work." He explained. "I trust them and know they would be fine but I'll feel better if you or Adam were there during the night." It wasn't exactly a question but she knew what he meant and agreed, "Of course, I'll have Adam pick me up in a little bit, we'll go there, everything will be fine." She smiled at him. He just nodded while looking at the table and picking at a scratch on the surface. Kim stared at him wishing there was something she could do.

The door to the waiting room opened, it was Matt. "Anything yet?" Kim asked. Matt shook his head, "No, they said three hours or so and it's been almost four." He sighed and sat down at the table. Gabby's spleen had ruptured while she was getting x-rays and she was rushed in for emergency surgery. Antonio let out a deep breath, "This is all so fucked up." He stood and walked to the window and stared out, it was almost midnight, Christmas was almost over, and him and Sylvie didn't get to see the kids at all, he was planning on surprising her at the firehouse with Sophia after he got off work. Matt and Kim watched him as he paced from window to window just staring out each one.

Matt's phone rang startling the three of them. It was the nurse letting him know that Gabby was out of surgery and in recovery. Antonio was leaning against the window watching Matt as he talked to the nurse. "They said we can come up and sit with her." Matt turned to Antonio and let him know. "Okay, I have to go back and check on Sylvie first." he said and pushed himself off the window and headed toward the door. "I'll go with you, Adam just texted he'll be here in about ten minutes." Kim got up to follow him.

It had been a week since the accident, it was New Years Day, a fresh start Sylvie thought to herself. She had been released from the hospital the next evening but Gabby was being released today. Sylvie wanted to visit her as soon as she was home but Antonio had been throwing himself into a case and hadn't been home before midnight any night that week and she couldn't drive. Eva had taken her to the hospital twice but she wasn't home tonight, so she would have to ask him. She decided to text him, 'Call me when you have a min please, love you'. She sat down in the front room floor to play with Sophia.

Antonio was sitting at his desk when his phone buzzed; he picked it up and read the text. He sighed and set the phone back down. "Who was that?" Kim asked giving him a knowing look. "No one" He lied and drug his hand through his hair. "Uh huh, well, you need to call that no one back. I'm not sure what's going on but pull your shit together, got it?" She wasn't playing with him, she knew him better than almost anyone.

Antonio knew he was avoiding Sylvie and he knew why but he was also aware he was being an ass. He felt like shit, she was hurt, down an arm, in pain from refusing any pain meds, and was home all day with Sophia, and he was dodging calls and going home late, he wasn't this guy and he knew he needed to do something. "I'll be in the garage." He told Kim and grabbed his phone and headed down the stairs for some privacy.

Sylvie was rolling a ball on the floor and Sophia was trying to kick it and laughing hysterically every time she missed. Sylvie's phone vibrated, she grabbed it and answered. "Hey" she answered, she knew it was Antonio. "Hey babe, what's up? Is everything okay?" he asked but figured she was fine. "Oh, no, sorry we're fine, I didn't really need anything, I just wanted to know if you'll be home early tonight. I really want to go see Gabby but sorry if you're busy, you can call me back later." She sighed and laid back on the floor hoping he would be home.

"Syl, please don't apologize, I'm not busy." He felt really shitty; he could tell she was nervous to talk to him. "I'll be home in a little bit, maybe an hour or so and we'll go see Gabby, promise." He exhaled. "Okay…but only if you're sure you're not busy." She didn't want him anymore upset at her. "I had already planned to be home early today, so I'll see you then okay, love you." He lied as he set on the corner of the table. "Okay, love you too." She hung up and sighed wishing he wasn't mad at her.

They still hadn't talked about it, Antonio was avoiding it and Sylvie wasn't going to start a fight about something they no longer had any control over, she was trying to wait for him to come to her but she was starting to think he never would. "SoSo how do you feel about a little brother or sister?" she hadn't said that out loud yet and it sounded strange. Sophia stopped and looked at Sylvie but was oblivious to what was actually being said and went about playing with her toys and talking her baby babble.

Her morning sickness hadn't been that bad and she didn't really feel anymore ran down or sick but that was hard to judge because of her injuries from the wreck, her whole body hurt. She was only about seven weeks so there was still plenty of time for this whole situation to spiral out of control. It terrified her that it could all go wrong but what else was she supposed to do? And now Antonio was mad but it was an accident, she didn't mean to get pregnant and she needed him to talk to her because she didn't know what to do. She tried to pull herself out of her thoughts before she got depressed and started to cry, she sat up and leaned against the couch and used her good arm to push herself up. She wanted to get a shower and clean up before Antonio got home.

Antonio decided to leave right away and knocked on Voight's door frame, "Hey, Sylvie needs me at home so I'm gonna head out and I need off the on-call list tonight too." Voight stared at him for a second, "Is everything okay? You've been here a lot this week." Voight knew something was going on; Antonio never avoided home or Sylvie especially if she was hurt. "Everything's fine, I just need sometime off tonight." He explained; he really didn't want to go into details with Voight. "Okay, I'll take you off, go home and take care of whatever you need to and tell Sylvie I hope she's feeling better." Antonio nodded at him and walked out.

Antonio found Sylvie in the shower with Sophia asleep in her crib in her bedroom. It was only eleven and he knew she wouldn't be expecting him this early so he called out before entering the bathroom so he wouldn't scare her. He walked in and sat on the toilet. "Hey, I missed you." he wasn't lying he really did miss her. The shower wall was glass and opened on one end, the glass was foggy so he couldn't quite see her. She poked her head out and looked at him, trying to determine his mood. He looked exhausted she thought. "I missed you, too." She moved back to finishing her shower, it was harder with only one arm.

"I'm sorry," he said as he leaned forward and put his head in his hands. "For what?" she said pretending that she wasn't upset. "Please don't do that, don't pretend that you haven't been upset because I've been shitty, that's not fair to you." He couldn't handle her invalidating her own feelings so he could feel better. She reached out and grabbed her towel and tried her best to wrap it around herself before she stepped out but she couldn't get it. "Can you help me?" she asked him while standing there dripping wet. He took the towel from her and helped her dry her body and hair and wrapped it around her. "Thanks." She smiled a small smile at him and went to get dressed in the bedroom; he followed her and laid down on the bed.

"I wasn't pretending not to be upset, I know you're mad at me and I just don't want to fight." She said in a small voice, she was avoiding looking at him while trying to get her clothes on. She was getting frustrated trying to get her shirt on, Antonio got off the bed and took the t-shirt out of her hand and helped get it over her head. "I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at myself." He stated looking her straight in the eyes. She didn't want to say what she was going to say next but she knew she had to throw it out there. "I can get an abortion?" It came out more as a question than a statement; she could feel her eyes starting to well up with tears.

Antonio took a step back from her and looked at her like she was crazy. "What the fuck Sylvie? Why would you suggest that?" he growled. She started to cry. Obviously she thought he might want it, he thought. He grabbed her and pulled her into a hug and held her as she sobbed into his chest. "I'm sorry, when I told you it was okay, I meant it, I promise, I'm not mad you're pregnant, I'm scared of you getting sick." He whispered to her as he rubbed her back, she just kept crying, all her emotions and pain she had bottled up over the past two weeks finally spilling out. He moved her backwards towards the chair in the corner, sat her down, and sat on his knees in front of her and just let her cry into his shoulder.

Sylvie had stopped crying but didn't move; she just kept her head buried in his neck. "Are you okay?" he asked her softly, he felt her shake her head no. "Look at me." He tried to coax her but she shook her head no again. "I need you to look at me so I can see your eyes, please." He begged her softly. She sniffled and pulled her head back to look at him. He cupped his hands around her face and held it there in front of him, she tried not to make eye contact with him, she was embarrassed from having a meltdown. "I'm sorry, you didn't do anything wrong and I'm not mad at you, I never could be, I shouldn't have acted like an ass." He stated as he put his forehead to hers. She pulled her eyes to his, he looked sad she thought. "I promise it was an accident, I didn't mean to get pregnant." She said softly as she moved her good hand to the back of Antonio's neck.

He closed his eyes for a minute to think and took a deep breath, "Okay, I need you to listen to me and remember this okay?" Antonio waited for her to nod. "First, we're married, this happens, you get careless and accidents happen, okay?" She nodded. "Second, stop being afraid to talk to me or tell me something, I've told you before that no matter what, everything else stops and I will listen and I won't judge, remember?" she responded with an almost inaudible "yea". "Third, I could never be mad at you, upset maybe, but I would never be so mad that you're the reason I shut down, that's my own shit, so please stop thinking it's you." She just stared at him. "And lastly, don't ever think you need to apologize for getting pregnant we were both there and either one of us could have stopped it but we didn't and that's on both of us. And yeah we screwed up…again, does it suck? Sure. Will it be hard? Probably, but we're going to work through it and pray to god you don't get sick again, but if you do, I'll still be here, I promise." He held eye contact with her, making sure she believed him.

She didn't speak but she leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips and just lingered there for several seconds. She pulled back and leaned back in the chair cradling her hurt arm. "I never wanted an abortion." She said sadly. She could see a spark of anger and disgust in his eyes when she said that word. He stood up and moved back to the bed and sat down. "It was never an option." He sighed as he ran his hand through his hair.

He laid back on the bed, "I'm sorry, I know I've been avoiding you and this, I just didn't know how to handle it." He rubbed his palms into his eyes. Sylvie just sat in the corner quiet. "It was too much at one time, the wreck, you and Gabby hurt, this." He exhaled loudly. "But at least we have longer than three months to figure it out, this time." He chuckled and lifted his head to look at her and winked at her trying his best to lighten the mood. She smiled at him but didn't quite mean it.

"You're a good husband, I hope you know that." She whispered as she pulled her sling on and moved to lay on the bed next to him. He turned his head to look at her and nodded. "No, I mean it, I know I get emotional and I keep a lot in and I overanalyze situations but you always know what to say to make me feel better." She rolled into his side and kissed his cheek. "I don't know about that, I feel like I'm failing all of you ninety percent of the time." He admitted bringing his arm up to cover his eyes.

Sylvie readjusted herself so she was sitting with her legs crossed next to his head, "What?" She reached and pulled his arm away from his face and he looked up at her. "You're not failing anyone, what would make you think that?" she was surprised. He looked at her, "I work too much, I barely see you or the kids, we haven't had a day off together in weeks, and you're afraid to tell me things. I don't know Syl, I'm just trying to do better than my first marriage but sometimes it feels like I'm headed in the same direction." He pulled his eyes toward the ceiling not wanting to see any hurt from his confession.

She grabbed his chin and made him look at her, she was mad, he thought. "You don't seriously think that do you? Cause that's crazy, you and Laura didn't work out because of your job, we don't have that problem." She motioned between the two of them. "And it's the holidays and winter, both of our busiest time of the year. I love you, the kids love you, and we understand and Sophia is too little to know any different. And I flipped out over a baby, I'm allowed to do that, I'm hormonal. I cried yesterday because Sophia dropped a banana on the floor and I had to pick it up. And my shoulder feels like it's broken in ten places and I stupidly refused pain meds so I hurt bad all the time." She sighed and rubbed her shoulder.

"And I'm not afraid to tell you things, we talk about everything, this was just something we have never discussed except you telling me you didn't want more kids, so I justifiably panicked and you started avoiding me right after I told you, so what was I supposed to think? I was going to tell you the day after Christmas but everything went to shit and I didn't want you to find out in the hospital again. So stop with this failing crap, you've never failed us and you never could, you're a great husband and father. And there's no way in hell I'm ever leaving you and I'm pretty damn sure you're not leaving me." Sylvie went on a small tirade as he just laid there and stared at her.

The only thing he could focus on was that she said she was in pain all the time; none of the rest of it mattered to him at the moment. "You need fill the prescription the doctor gave to you, he said it wouldn't affect the baby." He gently pulled her hand off his chin and kissed the back of it. "Did you hear anything else I said?" she said exasperated. "I heard it all, the only part that matters at this moment though is that you're in pain." He pushed himself up off the bed and grabbed her hand and tugged her up to her knees on the bed pulling her into a hug, "We'll stop on the way to see Gabby, let's get going." He kissed her forehead and headed to get Sophia ready. Sylvie sighed and climbed off the bed to finish getting ready knowing their conversation was done and he wouldn't be able to focus on anything else until she filled the prescription.

Sylvie stood in Gabby's bedroom doorway staring at her for a moment as Gabby read a magazine, she couldn't believe just a week ago she almost lost her, hell they both could have died if Antonio wouldn't have gotten concerned. "Hey Sis, come sit." Gabby's voice pulled Sylvie out of her thoughts, she smiled and headed for the bed. "How're you feeling?" she asked as she sat on the bed next to Gabby and grabbed her hand. "Sore but I have some good pain meds and I wish I could walk but doc said no weight for at least six weeks and maybe another surgery, ugh." She groaned. "What about you, you look stressed?"

Sylvie shrugged, "I'll be okay, just tired and my shoulder is killing me, luckily Sophia can crawl up and down the stairs now if I walk behind her because I can't carry her. Eva tries to get everything together in the mornings before she leaves but I can't keep relying on her, it isn't fair and Laura's stopped by a couple times but she has the bakery and can't stay long." Sylvie gave Gabby a small smile, "Sorry for complaining when you can't even move at all, do you need anything? I can go get it."

Gabby shook her head, "No, you're hurt too don't even think about it. Besides that's what the guys are for." Gabby chuckled, then got a serious look on her face. "Hey, thank you for saving me, I should have listened when you suggested going back." She started to tear up.

"No, don't cry, it's okay, I'm not mad and you were right, it's our job to get to the people and help them, we put our lives on the line, it's just part of the job, it's not you're fault at all." Sylvie moved closer to Gabby to give her a hug careful not to hurt her. "And I would have done anything to save you, you're my sister and I love you. I don't need a thank you."

Gabby sniffled and wiped her eyes, "I just feel bad, it all could have been avoided. I'm just glad you didn't get anymore hurt or we would have frozen to death." Sylvie squeezed her a little more. "Well how about I tell you some news that no one knows yet to cheer you up?" Sylvie wanted to lighten the conversation. Gabby nodded her head, "You know how much I love gossip." Sylvie smiled, not sure if she should be saying anything, since her and Antonio hadn't discussed the details yet. "Well, it's still really early and we haven't really discussed details yet…" Gabby interrupted, "Oh my god, you're pregnant!" Sylvie smiled and nodded. "Yeah but shush, we haven't even discussed telling anyone yet."

Gabby had the biggest grin on her face. "How far along? And are you okay?" Gabby was obviously excited. Sylvie chuckled. "I'm about seven weeks and so far so good, hopefully it stays that way. Tonio's really concerned though."

"Hey Sis! What am I concerned about, Syl? Antonio asked as he walked into the room carrying Sophia. Sylvie glanced at Gabby and back at Antonio. "Umm, I let Gabby in on our news." She was apprehensive not knowing if he would be okay with it being out in the world yet. "Of course you did, I didn't expect that you would be able to keep it a secret from her for very much longer." He laughed as he walked over to Gabby and held Sophia up so she could give her Tia a kiss without hurting her. "How're you feeling?"

"Bored and hurting, it sucks but it could be worse." She groaned. "Thanks to your pretty perfect and terrific wife here we got to live another day." Sylvie blushed, " I was just doing what you would have done too and besides you've saved my life before, I wouldn't have made it through being pregnant with Sophia if it wasn't for you."

"I'm just glad that all three of you are okay." He winked at Sylvie, knowing she was still uneasy and he kissed Gabby on the head. "Matt wants to know what you want for lunch sis and if you want anything, babe?" Gabby looked at Sylvie and cocked her eyebrow. "You hungry? We can send one of them for something, Chinese? Pizza?"

Sylvie shook her head, "No, not really, I think these pain pills are really kicking in, I'm exhausted." She yawned. "I think we're gonna head home, maybe Tonio or Eva can drop me and Soph off in the morning and we'll spend the day here with you and Matt can help me with Sophia, can we do that?" Gabby quickly agreed; she needed the company and distraction from being stuck in the bed. "Okay, we'll see you tomorrow, love you."

The house was quiet, Antonio didn't want to check his phone but he thought maybe it was close to midnight or a little after and he couldn't sleep. He could hear Sylvie's steady breathing, the blackout curtains made the bedroom impossibly dark but he knew instinctively where she was and how she was laying, she slept he same way every night, in a ball on her side with her back to him and all the covers rolled around her in the middle of their king size bed. He usually had to wrap himself around her for warmth but with her shoulder hurt he didn't want to risk it so he had been sleeping with an extra blanket.

He reached out and touched her back, she didn't move, he knew she was sound asleep. He inched closer to her so he was just next to her back, thank god they had a good mattress that didn't move, he thought to himself. He pulled the comforter up off her back, she moved slightly and said something inaudible, she talked in her sleep a lot. He held still for a moment letting her settle back down and then continued with his mission. He'd done this every night of the last week since he found out she was pregnant, he found her stomach and placed his hand there and said a prayer. He wasn't particularly religious, they didn't attend church, the kids were baptized only because his mom would have a fit, and he said his prayers over the deceased out of courtesy. But this prayer was for Sylvie and the baby; he needed them to be safe and healthy because he didn't know if either of them could survive a repeat of last time.

"What are you doing?" Antonio jumped and pulled his hand back; she scared the shit out of him. "I couldn't sleep." Was all he could think of, a little embarrassed that he waited for her to sleep to touch her. She rolled on to her back and grabbed his hand and placed it back on her stomach. "We have to be okay with this, it deserves to be just as loved and wanted as Sophia." He started rubbing her stomach. "I was praying for you guys, that you stay healthy and it is wanted and loved, it's a part of you there's no way I can't love it." Sylvie moved and laid down on top of Antonio and pulled the covers over them, she snuggled into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. "We're okay?" she asked as she laid there listening to his heartbeat. "We'll always be okay, even when we're not."

He was rubbing his hand up and down her back enjoying her weight on top of him and the silence. Sylvie spoke softly, "I'm scared too, I don't want to get sick, remember I'm the one that almost died." He kissed her on the top of her head. "I remember, single most terrifying ordeal of my life, even the two days Diego was kidnapped didn't touch the months of terror I felt, at least I knew we would get him back, but there was nothing I could do for you. But we're way past that now, let's try to move on and let whatever happens happen and pray for the best." She nodded her head into his chest and snuggled in a little more. Antonio heard Sylvie's breathing even out and knew she was asleep, he tried his best to situate her more into his side and laid there praying everything would turn out fine.


	21. Chapter 21

Sylvie stood in the lobby of district trying to look anywhere but at the officer working the front desk, she had told him she didn't need help when she walked in but he kept staring at her making this whole situation even more unbearable. Sylvie heard the gate open and looked up to see Kim coming down the stairs with a sad look on her face, "Hey Sylvie, he's in the locker room, I'm gonna take you up the back way." Kim whispered as she gave Sylvie a hug. "Is he okay?" Sylvie asked really needing to know. Kim started walking toward the door motioning for Sylvie to follow her as she scanned into the door that led to the stairs. "No." she said simply.

It had been three days since Sylvie had seen or heard from Antonio, Kim and Adam had texted her and let her know he was safe and was at the district and the team was taking turns staying with him. Antonio made Adam promise to keep Sylvie away and she had resigned to giving him his space knowing he would come to her when he was ready but Kim had called earlier to let her know Voight was requesting she come try to talk to him because he was taking this worse than anyone could imagine and they were all worried.

Sylvie stood outside the locker room door just staring at it. "He's in there, just go on in and lock the door behind you." Sylvie turned slightly and looked at Kim and gave a nod. She pushed the door, stepped in and locked it behind her; she couldn't see him so she moved forward. She found him sitting on a bench with his back against the wall in the last row of lockers.

"Tonio," She said softly as she walked toward him. He didn't answer, his head was laid back against the wall and he was staring at the ceiling. She quickly closed the gap between them and wrapped him in a hug as best she could with her good arm. He was still, he didn't move, he didn't talk, he just sat there and let her hug him. Sylvie sat on the bench in front of him, "I need you to talk to me, everyone is really worried." She grabbed one of his hands and just held it. "You look like you haven't eaten or slept in days." He wouldn't look at her and kept his focus on the ceiling.

Sylvie grabbed his chin and attempted to pull his head down to face hers but he quickly shook his head from her grasp. "Please look at me." She pleaded and moved to set on his lap straddling him and grabbed the back of his head with her good hand and forced it down so he would look at her. She knew he wouldn't fight it or resist while she was sitting on him, especially while she was pregnant and wasn't completely healed from the accident a little over a month before.

He had his eyes closed and was shaking his head, "Hey, come on, just look at me." He slowly opened his eyes and the pain and devastation was enough to kill her, her heart broke into a million tiny pieces. He kept shaking his head, his eyes filling with tears, he couldn't stop it. "Shhh, it's okay." She laced her arm around his neck and held him as tight as she could. He buried his head in her chest; his whole body shuddered with each sob.

She didn't say anything and just held on to him while he let it all out. He was holding on as if his life depending on it, hugging her so tightly she could barely breathe and his fingers digging into her sides where she would undoubtedly have bruises.

The sobs quieted and his grip loosened slightly but he didn't move, Sylvie wasn't going to force him, she kept her arm wrapped around his neck as she ran her fingers through the back of his hair. "She was Sophia's age." His words vibrated against her chest barely above a whisper. "I know." she whispered as she continued to rub the back of his neck.

"Fucking Adam." He whispered releasing Sylvie to rub his hands down his face. His face was red and swollen from crying, he looked broken, Sylvie thought to herself. "It wasn't him, I came on my own." She lied to him not wanting to throw their friends under the bus. "You shouldn't have." He was shaking his head trying not to cry again. "I don't deserve it."

"Stop it, it was an accident, plain and simple, you did nothing wrong." She grabbed his face and pulled it towards hers and kissed him. He pulled back breaking the kiss.

"I killed a baby, Sylvie! How the hell is that even remotely okay? It's unforgiveable accident or not." He was trying not to yell but his anger at himself was quickly taking hold. He had wallowed, he had cried, he had been silent but he hadn't gotten angry yet.

"It was an accident, Kim and Adam told me what happened, you guys were trapped you had no choice and you didn't know she was there." She tried to grab his face again but he grabbed her wrist, startling her. "Oww, that hurts." She yelped as she tried to pull it away. He released his grip and looked away from her embarrassed by his action, he hadn't meant to hurt her. "I need you to go home and just leave me here, take care of the kids, I'll call you." He said firmly while trying to scoot her off of him but she wasn't budging.

"I'm not leaving until you talk to me." She was not going to just give in and let him sit there and wallow in self-pity. It was a terrible accident but it was not his fault. "Sylvie, please get off me and just go, don't make me move you." He warned.

"I'm not leaving, I've already told you this, if you're determined to spend another night on that couch then I guess that's where I'm sleeping too."

He couldn't deal with this, his mind was on overload. He needed away from her, he needed to be alone without anyone checking on him every five minutes or calling his wife to check on him. "Move…now!" he growled at her, looking her square in the eyes, giving his final warning before he had to move her, he didn't want to but he needed up.

She didn't move but kept her big blue eyes locked firmly on his, daring him to try to move her. "I'm not leaving you, you may think you don't deserve me or the kids, or anything but you do. You're going to stop this and come home, do you understand?" she demanded, her voiced raised on the verge of yelling at him.

He blinked at her surprised by her forcefulness, "I can't," he said in a low growl. He couldn't go home and hold Sophia, talk to Eva and Diego, play happy husband to Sylvie when he took someone else's happiness, their reason for living. He had three perfect kids and a pregnant wife, it wasn't fair.

"You will, you're going to get up and follow me to the car and we're going to go home. You can shut yourself away, do whatever you want but I'm telling you right now you're doing it at home where I know you're safe and not going to do something stupid." She didn't mean to yell but her emotions took over, she had never seen him like this, she knew why Voight was worried.

"I'm not fucking going." he yelled in her face and she flinched, his temper flaring as he grabbed her around the waist and attempted to stand but lost his balance stepping over the bench. He dropped her causing her to hit her back on the bench on the way down. She yelled from the pain. "Fuck, are you okay?" He went to reach for her but she smacked his hand away and got to her feet.

"Don't touch me." She screamed, she was pissed, she knew he didn't mean to drop her but he did and all because he couldn't control his anger. "I'm fine" she huffed as she reeled her anger in. "You're coming home with me or I'm going to have Hank put you in a cell until I can have you evaluated, the choice is yours, because I can tell you right now neither version of you I'm seeing right now are my husband, the first one I understand, this one…the angry asshole standing right here, I don't recognize him and let me tell you I don't like him either. So pick one, home or cell." She was standing her ground and she was pretty sure the whole building could hear her yelling.

There was a knock on the door, "Unlock the door." Adam yelled from the other side. Sylvie knew he was checking on the yelling, "We're fine." She yelled back at him, Antonio just stood there staring at her shell-shocked. "Open it, I want to see for myself." He wasn't going to go away until he saw Sylvie, he knew Antonio wouldn't intentionally hurt her but Antonio wasn't in his right headspace at the moment. Sylvie moved to open it but kept her eyes firmly planted on Antonio daring him to try to leave. "I'm fine but I may need you, I'll text you." She whispered opening the door only far enough for him to see. He gave her a once over and nodded. "Okay, let me know."

Antonio stood there just watching, he had lost his temper, he had never done that with Sylvie, never yelled at her, never touched her out of anger but twice tonight he had hurt her and had yelled at her. He finally spoke, "I can't see the kids Syl, I'll go home but I can't see them, please, I can't handle it." His anger dissipating, his mood somewhere between anger and devastation, he didn't know if he could keep resisting her, she was so much stronger than him.

Sylvie looked at him standing there, he looked so broken, this wasn't her husband, this was a man who had witnessed a terrible tragedy and was on the floor in a thousand pieces. "I'll send them to Gabby or Laura for the night, okay?"

She grabbed her phone and texted Adam. "I'm gonna ask Adam if he can head over to the house and help Eva get everyone's stuff together and Eva can take Diego and Sophia to go wait at Laura's until I figure out what to do tonight. So give me a minute to talk to him." There was a knock, Sylvie answered and explained to Adam what she needed and without hesitation Adam left.

Antonio didn't know what to do with himself, he wanted so badly to just let her wrap herself around him and hold him, it was what he needed, what he wanted but he didn't deserve it, he didn't deserve any of it and he never really did. He had been kidding himself all along, ending up with Sylvie was an accident, it was never supposed to happen, one careless night in a car is what got them here not divine intervention not fate, just plain carelessness. Laura had made it a point for years to point out all his flaws and she was right, he should have pushed harder when Sylvie pursued him and saved her all the heartache and misery. He felt a body press against his back and an arm wrap around him and he opened his eyes, he hadn't even realized he had them closed.

"Don't." He touched her hand and she grabbed ahold of his shirt so he couldn't move it. "You don't get to tell me what to do, I'll hug you if I want." She wasn't going to let him push her away no matter how hard he tried. "As soon as Adam texts me we'll leave." He knew it was pointless to try to resist her, she was stubborn when she wanted something. He around to face her, "I'm sorry I hurt you, are you okay? I'm not looking for forgiveness either, I need you to be mad at me."

Sylvie stared at him, she could see he was being honest, a part of him needed her mad at him so he could hate himself. She sighed and pressed herself against his chest and held on tight. "I'm fine and I'm not mad at you and I'm not going to help you hate yourself, you're still the best person I know and nothing you do will ever change that or how I feel about you."

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Antonio sat straight up, his heart racing and drenched in sweat, trying to catch his breath he frantically felt the bed next to him, he sighed in relief when his hand made contact with her. The room was pitch dark and he guessed it was sometime after midnight. It had been two months since the accident and he still had yet to get entire nights sleep without a nightmare, the same one but a different person every night, it was always so vivid and felt so real, he paid for his sin with his family's lives. He shuddered and tried to shake the nightmare out of his head. Slipping out of bed careful not to wake Sylvie he headed to complete his nightly routine.

Antonio headed towards Diego's room and peeked in, he was sound asleep with his ear buds still in and lamp still on, he turned the lamp off and pulled the door. He pushed Eva's door open and crept toward the bed, Eva was wrapped up under the covers on her side facing away from him and Sophia was laying sideways with her feet in her sisters back no covers and hogging the bed just like her mom. He fixed Sophia in the bed and covered her with her blanket and kissed both of them on the forehead and headed downstairs. He triple checked all the doors and windows and made sure the alarm was set and headed back to bed. It was the exact same routine every night, usually multiple times.

He wanted to sleep but every time he closed his eyes the image of the little girl he shot was there. Rationally he knew it was an accident, he had been over and over this in therapy, she wasn't supposed to be there, she was asleep in the backseat of the offender's car, there was no child seat in the car, she was covered by a blanket because it was cold outside, but the emotional part of him couldn't help but think he could have done better, could have aimed better, could have looked for an alternative to shooting, could have a million different things but didn't. He had replayed the entire thing every night for months now trying to figure out exactly what he could have done differently.

Him and Adam had been making an undercover drug buy when they were made and the offender opened fire on them from inside his car, Antonio fired two rounds, one striking the back door and the other striking the offender inside the car. He wouldn't have fired but the offender had them pinned in with his car and they had no cover. Adam never fired a round, Antonio had beat him to the punch and hit the offender with the second shot, killing him. They were clearing the car when Antonio pulled the blanket back and found the little girl bleeding. Adam checked for vitals and performed CPR until paramedics arrived but she was pronounced dead at the scene. He couldn't figure it out, there was no way to know she was there, she wasn't even the offender's daughter, it was his niece who he had been babysitting for his sister, but they should have done better was all he could think.

Antonio had resisted interacting with Sophia, Eva, or Diego for two and half months before Eva was finally frustrated enough to speak up. "I'm not taking her with me Dad, Abuela called she's sick and can't watch her and I have class, and mom and Tia are at work, but you're here you can take care of her, I shouldn't have to find her a babysitter." Eva was holding Sophia trying to hand her off to Antonio and he was refusing to even acknowledge either of them existed. "You're going to have to talk to us sooner or later, you can't pretend we don't exist forever." She was getting frustrated with him and could feel a temper tantrum coming on if she didn't walk away. Antonio walked around her and headed for the front room and sat on the couch, turning on the TV.

"Fine, you know what…here she is, I'm leaving, you deal with her." Eva was yelling as she sat Sophia down on the couch next to Antonio. "Hey SoSo, Sissy loves you, I'll see you in a lil bit and we'll go see mommy for dinner okay?" Eva kissed her on the forehead. She turned to glare at Antonio who kept his eyes trained on the TV, "I'm leaving, you better take care of her." He didn't respond. "I mean it, do you understand?" She was in his face trying to get a reaction but he just kept still and stared at the TV.

"Fine ignore me all you want but she's a baby, if I get back and she wasn't taken care of you'll regret it." She growled at him and kissed Sophia on the head one more time and stormed out the front door, slamming it behind her.

Antonio peeked over at Sophia; she was setting on the couch still in her pajamas with her hair a giant mess of curls on top of her head. She was staring at him with those big blue eyes that he had fallen in love with the moment he had laid eyes on her. He wanted to ignore her but he just couldn't, he held his arms out for her but she just sat there. "Come here baby girl" he said and leaned over to grab her but she scooted away and shook her head. His heart broke; he hadn't meant to make her scared of him.

"Please Sophia, come to daddy" he held his hands out again trying to coax her to him, she continued to stare at him and didn't budge from her spot at the end of the couch. He sighed and scooted closer to her "I'm sorry SoSo, I need a hug from you, can you come give daddy one?" he held his arms out again. He could see her contemplating whether or not to trust him, "Come on it's okay," she crawled toward him and climbed in this lap and faced him. "Hey baby daddy missed you, can I have a hug?" She spread her tiny arms and pressed her body into his and he wrapped his arms around her.

Eva walked in the door and immediately noticed the silence, an oddity for three in the afternoon when Sophia was home. "Dad, SoSo?" she yelled but received no answer. She opened the door to the garage and her dad's truck was there. She decided to head upstairs to find them. "Dad?" she said as she knocked lightly on his bedroom door, no one answered so she continued to open it. To her surprise her dad was lying on the bed sound asleep with Sophia on top of him asleep also. She knew her dad hardly slept so she really didn't want to wake him but she needed Sophia so they could run some errands and head over to the firehouse to meet Sylvie for dinner.

She quietly headed toward the bed and tried to pick Sophia up as gently as possible. Antonio's hands instinctively moved to Sophia and he popped his eyes open as soon as he felt Sophia's weight start to move. "What are you doing?" he asked, his voice hoarse with sleep. "Uh, umm, we need to run some, umm, errands and we're, umm, going to the firehouse for, umm, dinner." She was caught off guard by him speaking to her; she hadn't heard his voice in so long. Antonio sat up and handed a half-awake Sophia to Eva. "Thanks for watching her today" she said as she turned to leave.

"Hey, Eva." Antonio grabbed the bottom of her shirt before she took a step. "Yeah?" She turned and looked at her dad. "You don't owe me a thank you, you're the kid, I'm your dad, and she's my responsibility not yours." Antonio stood up and wrapped his arms around both of his girls. "I owe you an apology, I've been shitty and I've been putting all this on you, thank you for making me see that today." She stared at him for a minute thinking of what she was going to say, she had been so angry with him the past couple months but she also knew he was dealing with a lot, "It's okay dad, I love you." She decided it was just easier to forgive. He took Sophia back from Eva. "How about we all go see Sylvie for dinner?" Eva nodded and smiled at him and headed out of the room to let Diego know they were leaving soon.

Eva ran from the car as soon as they parked and made a beeline for the common room. "Hey Tia, have you seen Sylvie?" Gabby was the only one in there. "Yeah, I think she's in the bunk room or at her desk." Gabby said as she motioned down the hallway.

"Sylvie!" Eva called as she came through the bunkroom door. Sylvie looked over her shoulder as she sat on the edge of her bed and smiled. "Hey honey, where's Sophia?" Eva gave her a 'you're not gonna believe it look'. "She's with dad, he came with us, he's talking to us again." she huffed a little out of breath from running.

"What? You're kidding right?" Sylvie stood and went to head towards the common room, Eva following behind. "No, really, I forced him to watch Sophia today and when I got home he was talking." Sylvie walked into the common room and there stood Antonio holding Sophia who was trying to get down from him, he sat her on the floor and she ran toward Sylvie. Sylvie gave Antonio a questioning look before she stooped down and gave Sophia a hug and a kiss, "Hi, baby! I missed you, did you have fun with daddy today?" Sylvie looked up at Antonio and he was staring at them. "Can you go give Tia hugs and kisses too?" She sent Sophia off in the direction of Gabby and stood to face Antonio.

"You're good?" was all she said to him, he talked to her at night when they were in bed, it wasn't a lot but he had shared some, his biggest fear being not able to interact with the kids again, the therapist had said she didn't think his disconnect was permanent but he was terrified it was. She was also aware of his nightly routine and nightmares even if he was completely unaware that she knew. Antonio nodded, "Yeah, I am." She nodded "Okay" and turned to go find Sophia.

xxxxxxx

Sylvie poked her head out of the covers and grabbed her phone to check the time, seven a.m. the room was still dark from the black out curtains but she could see Antonio's outline and scooted closer to him wiggling her way into his side and wrapping her arm over him. She whispered in his ear. "You need to wake up we have an appointment in a little bit." He shook his head. "Didn't sleep, can't we just stay right here?" he said as he readjusted and kissed the top of her head.

"Nope, baby appointment, monthly check, we have to go, sorry." She slapped his chest as she rolled over and climbed off the bed. "Now get up and get in the shower while I get Sophia ready before Gabby gets here for her." She was twenty-two weeks and had a smooth pregnancy so far, it was so much different then her experience with Sophia and she was glad she could enjoy it.

Antonio was leaning against the wall in the exam room behind Sylvie waiting for the doctor. "I really don't want to find out." Sylvie turned to look at him, "Why?" she was confused they had already talked about it and agreed they wanted to know. "I don't know, it's just what I'm feeling right now, you can find out but I don't want to know." He had been working on saying what he was feeling in therapy and this was something he was feeling strongly at the moment. Sylvie looked at him for a moment, "Okay, we don't have to find out, I'll have her write it down and put it in an envelope in case you want to know later.

"I'm sorry, I know I've disappointed you a lot lately." Sylvie could hear the sadness and regret in his voice as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder. She turned her head to look at him; he looked beaten down and barely looked like himself. She kissed his cheek, "Look, you haven't disappointed me, I'm okay, we're okay, we'll always be okay even when we're not…remember?" He turned to head to look at her and put his forehead to hers. "Yeah, I do, it's the only thing keeping me together." He whispered and leaned in to kiss her lingering for a moment before pulling back and whispering, "Thank you."

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"You're fucking kidding me, right?" was all Laura said as she stood in the doorway to the kitchen holding Sophia giving him a death stare. "What?" He was confused as to why Laura was upset, he was just trying to make Sophia's lunch before he had to leave for his appointment. Sylvie was still working shifts but had been put in a desk job at the firehouse in February when she returned to work from the ambo accident and Laura was babysitting. "Sylvie called me and asked if I would talk some sense into you. You wanna give up and move to the suburbs?" she was exasperated. "That's exactly what you don't want, remember? You gave up an entire marriage over it!"

He didn't know how to answer, they never talked about this, they both pretty much pretended it never happened. "You don't understand." He muttered. She laughed. "Understand? Yeah I do, I watched you struggle in Vice for years, get shot twice, Diego get kidnapped, Jules die, our marriage fall apart, our kids lives shattered. I understand it all but being in intelligence that's who you are, I understand that now, it took a long time but I see it and I'm not letting you just give up and run away because something terrible happened. Your kids deserve better than a dad who gives up." She huffed.

He started to explain, "But look at everything that's happened since I've been there, everything you've pointed out none of it would have happened, we'd still be married."

Laura threw her hand up, "Nope, stop right there, we're not going down that road, you're married to one of the literal best people I have ever met and she is the best person for you, she accepts all of it, all of you, without hesitation, I never did. And your thinking away Sophia and the new baby so stop it. You don't know what would have happened between us, we were like oil and water, we fought a lot, we never agreed, it wasn't good and hadn't been in a long time."

He knew she was right, his relationship with Sylvie was so much stronger and calmer. He shook his head, "I'm just not sure I can do it anymore, I've been off four months and I can't remember the last time I was this relaxed." He grabbed Sophia from her and put her in her highchair and sat her lunch down.

"I think you either just need to get back to it or take another month, whatever feels right but I can tell you one thing, your not going to the suburbs, Syl will kill you." Laura laughed and leaned against the doorway staring at him as he sat in a chair at the table. He looked at her and shrugged, "It was just an idea, I'm over it." He looked back at Sophia to cover his lie; he knew it wasn't going to happen anyway, not with both Laura and Sylvie against him.

"Is this ever odd for you?" he motioned between the two of them, trying to change the subject, "We just pretend we don't have what 21 years between us, it's a little weird right? Normal exes don't act like this do they?" He was trying to avoid looking at her as he spoke as he played with the grapes on Sophia's plate in front of him.

"Odd? Haha, yeah, that's an understatement, your wife is my best friend, she calls me for advice on you, and I babysit your kid." She chuckled as she moved to stand behind the high chair where she could see him better. "Look some exes act like this but a lot have screaming matches in the middle of a police station and have restraining orders." Her expression changed to sadness at the memories of all the fights they had. "I really like that we can be friends without fighting anymore and that we can kinda talk about stuff without being completely uncomfortable." She was staring at him and he peeked up at her and gave a small smile. "I like that too."

"So anyway, you're not moving to the suburbs and you need to get going for your appointment." She was trying to change the subject. "Do you think you're getting released back to work today?" she asked moving to clean up Sophia's lunch mess. He sighed and stretched back in the chair before standing up, "I really have no idea but if she does, I guess I'll just go back to work, I don't think I need anymore time off."


	22. Chapter 22

Antonio sat on the edge of the bed, it had been four and half months since he had stepped foot inside district and to be honest he was terrified of returning. He turned and looked back at the bed, it was dark but he could see the pile of blankets that had Sylvie wrapped beneath it, he could hear her steady breathing and knew she was still asleep. He was contemplating waking her; he was a nervous wreck and needed someone to talk through it with.

"Stop thinking so hard and just get in the shower." He jumped a little startled by her sudden intrusion, "God, Syl, I hate when you do that, it's like some weird ESP shit you have." He sighed and laid back down with his head near hers. Sylvie rolled over to face him, "Well if you didn't think so loudly then I wouldn't hear you." She giggled and kissed him on the corner of this mouth. He turned his head and looked at her, he wished it was a little lighter in the room, he could barely make out the details of her face, he needed to see those blue eyes, the ones that could drive him crazy and calm him all with the same look. He couldn't explain it but she was his center, his peace and he didn't know how he lived all those years with out her.

He rolled over and pulled her closer to him, her belly stopping her from scooting all the way into him. "I'm nervous." He said putting his forehead against hers. "Give it a week and you'll be so happy to be back, you love your job and you're damn good at it." He moved his hand to her belly and held it there, "It never kicks for me." Sylvie laughed, "Maybe cause you call it, It." She sighed, "Can we please find out so we can name it and I don't have to buy a bunch of green and yellow?" she was almost begging.

"You really can't stand surprises can you?" he laughed. Sylvie shook her head against his forehead. "Fine, but not right now, I have an idea, okay?" he leaned forward and kissed her quickly and rolled off the bed. "Okay?" she was confused by his sudden enthusiasm. "I have to get ready, Kim will be here in thirty and don't worry, you'll like it." he said as he disappeared into the bathroom.

Sylvie drug herself out of bed and headed downstairs, it was only six-thirty and she knew the kids wouldn't be up for hours, it was summer break which meant nowhere for them to be. Sylvie was half way down the stairs when she heard the door handle jiggle and she froze, wondering who would be trying to open the door this early. Kim's head peeked in and Sylvie sighed a breath of relief, "Kim, you scared the crap out of me!" she panted as she held he hand over her chest as her heart raced.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you'd be awake or I would have just knocked." She apologized as she shut the door behind her and entered the alarm code. "It's okay, you're fine, really, pregnancy brain, I forgot you were coming. Do you want some coffee? I'm about to make some for Tonio." Sylvie offered as she made her way down the stairs. "Actually yeah, that would be great, I could use some." Kim answered as she followed Sylvie to the kitchen.

Kim sat on the barstool as she watched Sylvie move around the kitchen making coffee. "So how's everything going?" Kim didn't want to ask about Antonio outright but knew Sylvie would fill her in. Sylvie handed Kim a cup of coffee, "He's doing better but he's scared. Just keep an eye on him okay?" Sylvie gave Kim a pleading look, she knew Kim loved him and would do anything to protect him. Kim nodded, "Hey Syl, we've got him, I promise. So try not worry, he will be fine."

Sylvie slid into the barstool next to Kim, sighed, and laid her head down. Kim laughed "Tired?" Sylvie nodded her head and let out a little whine. "How much longer until the mystery baby is here?" Kim asked. Sylvie lifted her head and looked at Kim "10 weeks and it won't be a mystery much longer, Tonio finally agreed to find out." Sylvie looked at Kim excited "Maybe we can go shopping soon?" Sylvie was in need of some actual girl. "Uh yes! Let me know when and I'm there." Kim laughed.

Antonio could hear laughing from the kitchen as he came down the stairs, he sighed and took a deep breath, it was now or never. As soon as he showed his face there was no turning back, Kim would drag him kicking and screaming if she had to. He stepped into the kitchen "Morning" he said as he moved behind Kim and squeezed her shoulders and kissed the side of her head. "Hey there, you ready to get going?" Kim asked as she spun on the stool to look at him.

Tonio nodded and stepped between the barstools to kiss Sylvie who still had her head down on the counter as she watched them. "Love you, see you later, and I'll call later." He whispered in her ear. "Love you too, bye Kim." Sylvie waved them off hoping that Antonio would have a good day and realize just how much he missed it.

Kim pulled into district and parked, she started to get out but noticed Antonio wasn't budging. "Hey, look at me, what's wrong?" she shook his shoulder to try to get him to look at her. He turned his head and shook it, "It's nothing, I'll be fine, I just need to make it inside that's all." He could feel a panic attack creeping up and was trying his best not to let it get that far. "Hey what do you need?" Kim was worried; he looked like he was ready to throw up. "A minute, just let me set a minute and I'll be fine." Antonio took a deep breath and let it out slow as he closed his eyes and counted to ten, he knew he looked ridiculous but he didn't care at this point, he just wanted to make it inside so he could start to get back to his normal self.

Kim watched as he tried to calm himself, he was so far from the confident man who had been her partner for years and she felt bad for him. In reality the accident could have happened to any of them but Antonio being the only father, aside from Voight, took it harder than anyone. She could see he still blamed himself and she wished he wouldn't but knew he probably always would. "We can set as long as you need to, we're not in a hurry today, we're grounded until further notice." Antonio turned his head to look at her, "me and you or the whole unit?" he asked hoping the answer was the unit.

Kim shook her head, "Just me and you, we're on desk duty until Voight decides you're ready for the field." Antonio turned apologetic "I'm sorry you're getting grounded to, that's really not fair to you." Kim stopped him, "Nope, don't apologize, it was my decision, I didn't want to leave you behind, you're my partner and if you're not ready, I'm not ready and that's just how it is and I wouldn't want it any other way." Antonio smirked at her, "that's really cheesy you know that right?"

"Well maybe it is but I don't care." Kim laughed. Antonio took a deep breath and looked at Kim, he winked as he opened the door, "It's now or never right?" Kim nodded her head and followed him inside.

Antonio stood inside the door and stared up the stairs that he knew would lead to Platt and he didn't know if he could face her. Kim nudged him and he turned to look at her. Kim could tell he was terrified and pulled him into a hug and just held him for a moment. "No one is judging you, you did nothing wrong, and we still love you." She whispered in his ear before releasing him and spinning him around to push him toward the stairs. Antonio sighed and slowly started up the stairs, taking them one at a time.

Antonio reached the top of the stairs, he stopped and took a deep breath and stepped through the doorway. Platt looked up from her morning paper and checked her watch, "Dawson, Burgess you're thirty minutes late you better get up to your unit before I'm forced to talk to your Sargent. Kim nodded her head and headed toward the cage and Antonio followed behind staring at Trudy, she winked at him and he smirked at her. She was his field trainer when he was a rookie and his first partner and he loved the woman to death, especially when she knew to just back off and let him have his space.

"Sarge knows were late don't worry about it." Kim informed him as he opened the gate and started to follow her up the stairs. She knew he hated be late and would worry how it would look to everyone for him to be late on his first day back. "I'm not worried, it's not like were doing anything anyways." He mumbled to himself certain he sounded like Diego when he didn't get his way. Kim turned her head and looked at him, "Sorry" he apologized and continued his ascent to the bullpen.

Antonio didn't know what to expect, it had been a long time, the last time he was gone for this long Erin had left for New York, he knew nothing that drastic had happened this time but he was still worried. He looked around and everything was the exact same. Everyone looked up and started greeting him but no one budged from their seats except Voight who was standing in his doorway. "Antonio, my office." Voight ordered in a stern voice from across the room. Antonio headed toward him and stopped in front of the door that Voight was blocking, he stared at him a moment before Voight opened his arms and pulled Antonio in for a hug. "It's good to have you back, the unit isn't the same without you bro."

Sylvie was sitting on the couch in the common room watching TV and enjoying the commotion of the firehouse, she really missed the action and hated being stuck behind a desk but was thankful she was at least at the firehouse and not stuck in 911 or OFI. Gabby flung herself down dramatically laying across the couch with her head in Sylvie's lap breaking her train of thought. "Ugh, Foster is driving me crazy." She complained. Sylvie chuckled, "Be nice, I like her and you could have had Chout or McAuley so be thankful." She pretended to scold Gabby.

"I guess but she's just so bossy, when am I getting you back?" Gabby whined. "Stop it, she's a good paramedic, it can't be easy knowing you'll be at 51 for almost a year and have to give it up, plus she has to work with the person she is filling in for. So cut her some slack and get along with her, for me, please." Sylvie begged.

Gabby decided to change the subject, "So how's my baby today?" Gabby asked while she patted Sylvie's stomach. "Baby's fine, if you wait a minute it might kick you in the head." Sylvie laughed. "Haha, funny, and how's my big brother? Did he make it to work today okay?" She turned her head to look up at Sylvie. "I think he'll be okay, he just needs to get back into. Voight has him grounded to the district until he knows he'll be okay in the field." Sylvie gave Gabby a knowing look, "Oh yeah, I give it one whole day before he's acting like a trapped lion, he hates desk duty. He'll drive Voight nuts complaining." Gabby laughed. "Honestly, that's what I'm hoping for, he needs to remember he loves it and get that stupid idea of leaving Intelligence out of his head." Sylvie confessed.

Foster leaned against the counter in the kitchen eating a box of crackers watching the members of the firehouse. She loved it here, she had always heard 51 was a family and that you were lucky if you could ever find a permanent spot but hearing and witnessing are two totally different things, the last four month had been amazing. She hated to think that her time would be up in four or five months but that was the life of a floater. She liked Gabby well enough but she was pushy and a little difficult to get along with but at the end of the day she was a good person and she respected her, she was damn good at her job. She eyed Sylvie sitting on the couch, she was the light of the firehouse, even she could see that, she was everyone's favorite person. "They're inseparable, always have been, even before everything they've been through." Foster jumped startled by the sudden intrusion, she looked over at Stella and smiled.

"You know I've been here four months and this place and your people still just amaze me, I've never seen a firehouse get along so well." Foster returned her gaze to Sylvie. "Is she really as sweet and innocent as she seems?" she asked out of curiosity. Stella snorted, "Brett? Sweet, yes. Innocent, no. She's an amazing person but innocent is not one of the words I would use to describe her." Stella was chuckling and Sylvie looked back at her to see what the commotion was, she smiled and Sylvie returned her attention back to Gabby. "She seems so wholesome, like a farm girl, you're kidding me right?"

Stella put her hand on Foster's shoulder, "Girl you have no idea. Hey, Brett, how'd you get pregnant with Sophia?" Foster punched Stella in the arm as Brett answered "Hook up in a car with my ex." She didn't even turn around, it became common knowledge after Otis let it slip at Molly's one night about a year before and she had been teased relentlessly for weeks about it, so talking about it didn't even faze her anymore. "And this one?" Stella hollered at Sylvie. Sylvie turned to look at her and smiled, "Stella, what are you doing?" she asked sweetly. "Filling our friend here in on the gossip of the firehouse." Stella stuck her tongue out teasingly. Sylvie shrugged her shoulders casually and returned her attention back to Gabby, "I think it was the backroom at Molly's but honestly could have been anywhere."

Foster glared at Stella, "That was a little rude don't you think?" Stella laughed, "Relax, she doesn't mind, I promise, she writes dirty romance stories too." Foster pushed herself off the counter and turned to face Stella, "it was still rude, now she's going to think I was prying, she probably already thinks I'm after her job." Foster sighed. "Uh, no, she knows her job is safe, they won't split the Dawson sisters up, Brett's the only one who can keep Dawson in line." Stella answered matter of factly.

"Still, I just want to get along with everyone here so please no more of the ambush shit, I was just curious about her. Plus, I've heard a couple of rumors and wanted to know." Foster shrugged. "Rumors? What have you heard about her?" Stella was very interested in this information. "It's from friends of mine from different firehouses so I'm sure its all bad anyway." Foster didn't want to repeat any of it but knew she more or less backed herself into a corner.

Stella grabbed Fosters hand and dragged her into the briefing room across the hall. "Okay Emily, spill and I will clear the rumors up for you." Foster looked around to make sure all the doors were shut. "Please don't repeat any of this." Foster begged and Stella nodded. "There's a rumor going around that she's made her way through all the guys at 51, Cruz, Otis, Severide, and a Jimmy and Mills, I'm guessing those last two are gone now, that she's lived with Cruz, Otis, and Severide at different points, and that she been with a lot of cops." Stella laughed and shook her head, she couldn't stop the laughing, "God, is our firehouse really that interesting? What else have you heard about this place?" Stella was trying her best to control herself.

Sylvie heard laughing coming from the briefing room, she nudged Gabby who was watching TV, still in the same position. "Can you help me up? This couch sucks me in." Gabby pushed herself off the couch and grabbed Sylvie's hands pulling her to her feet. Brett looked into the room and saw Foster and a laughing Stella, she pushed the door open, "What's so funny?" she asked moving into the room with Gabby following right behind. Foster looked as if she was going to die and Stella just laughed harder. Sylvie gave Foster a funny look, "is it something about me?" she questioned, she had a strong feeling it was.

"Umm, it is, I got curious after some of my friends fed me rumors last weekend and I wanted to get facts, I'm sorry, this is really none of my business, I'll drop it." Foster was starting to panic, she wanted this firehouse to like her and she pissed off the one person she needed on her side. Sylvie smiled, "I'm used to the rumors, I hear them all the time, like…I trapped Antonio, I stole him from his wife, I stole his kids from their mom, I made myself sick and almost killed myself and my daughter for sympathy, I'm only married because I almost died, the list goes on and on, so there's nothing you can say that will upset me, just ask, okay?" Foster gulped and nodded her head, "They're just stupid rumors but…that you've dated most of the guys in the firehouse and you've lived with a lot of them and that you've made your way through a lot of cops too."

Sylvie rolled her eyes, "The only guy I have dated in the firehouse is Cruz and it lasted a couple of months and was done. I did live with him and Otis as friends, all three of us in separate rooms, long after Joe and I broke up and I lived with Kelly for a while before I found out I was pregnant with Sophia and cops well, no one needs to know the number because there is only one who matters." Sylvie winked at Foster and laughed.

"What other rumors have you heard about this place?" Sylvie was curious, it wasn't often they got outsiders who were willing to tell them everything. "Oh lord, can I just please be done for the day? I'm embarrassed enough as it is, I really am sorry, I should have just come to you first." Sylvie walked over to Foster and wrapped her in a hug, "Girls are a rare commodity in the firehouse so we need to stick together, don't worry about it, we're good."

Antonio was staring at Kim doing her work; she was focused on her computer screen and hadn't noticed Antonio's gaze on her yet. Antonio was getting frustrated, "How can you stand just sitting here? It's driving me crazy." He complained as he stood up and started pacing around their desks. Kim smirked at him, "it's only been five hours and you're already bored out of your mind. And you wanted to move to the suburbs where you would literally be sitting all day? Yeah, that would have lasted a week and you would have been right back here begging for your job back just like when you went to work for Stone." Kim chuckled as she finished sending the information to the team that they needed.

Antonio huffed, "How long do you think he's going to keep us tied to the district?" he complained as he played with his paperclips and flicked them at him. "Seriously, Tonio you just got back, I'm going to guess at least a week, just give it time, we'll get back out there." She said throwing a paperclip at him that he had flicked to her side. He stared at her a minute and grumbled, "Fine." He knew everyone was just looking out for him but he really just needed to be back out in the field where his mind could focus on the job.

Antonio pulled up to the firehouse and turned off his truck. He sat in the silence for a moment, his day was impossibly long and he didn't know if he would survive sitting behind a desk waiting for Voight to decide when he could go back out. The garage doors were up and he saw Gabby walk to the ambo and open the back doors. He climbed out of the truck and made a beeline for her hoping to talk to her before he headed in to find Sylvie.

He snuck up beside the ambo to make sure Sylvie wasn't near, "Hey Sis!" he whispered. Gabby jumped, "What the hell Tonio, don't sneak up on me like that." She said as she punched him in the arm. "Shhh…come outside, I need to talk to you for a minute and I don't want Sylvie to overhear." He grabbed her hand and started to lead her out.

"What is this about Tonio? I need to stock." Gabby was annoyed. Antonio pulled an envelope out of this pocket and handed it to her, "I need you take this, it's the sex of the baby, and plan something special for Syl. She's put up with a lot this past year and she really deserves it." Gabby flipped it over in her hands several times before looking up at him, "So you want me to know first? Is Sylvie okay with that? I mean I'm more than happy to do it but.." Antonio cut her off, "Look, I don't care who knows first, I just want it special for her, Okay?" she nodded her head and shoved the envelope into her pocket. "Just don't tell anyone else." He warned. She stepped in and wrapped him in a hug, "I've got it, don't worry."

"Speaking of Syl, where is she?" he broke their hug. "Common room is where I left her, she was laying on the couch?" Antonio nodded and headed in. Antonio hated that Sylvie was still working 24 hours shifts but she insisted, he rounded the corner into the common room and found Sylvie asleep on the couch. He stood there watching her for a minute wishing he could just take her home, she looked exhausted and she still had thirteen hours left. He decided to wake her and knelt down next to her and shook her. Her eyes opened and she looked at him confused, "What are you doing here, is everything okay?" He nodded his head, "Everything's fine, I just needed to see you before I head home, that's all."

Sylvie smiled at him and leaned into him and kissed him. "How was work?" she asked as she pulled back. "It sucked, I hate desk duty." He pouted. She smirked, "I knew you would." She tried to cover her mouth as she laughed. "Okay, know-it-all, I miss the action okay, is that what you want to hear?" she nodded proudly. "Well, I better get home and relieve Eva from Sophia duty. Text me later. Love you." Sylvie yawned and nodded, "I will and love you too." He kissed her and headed toward the door.

Antonio walked into the bullpen and threw his jacket on the desk and dropped into his chair. He'd been back for a month and in the field for two weeks, he had forgotten how much running was involved, he was exhausted. "Hey, Molly's tonight?" Adam asked as he walked in behind him on his way to his desk. Antonio shrugged his shoulders, "I guess, as long as I don't have to run." he sighed. Adam chuckled, "So this surprise thing this weekend, what is it?" Adam asked. Antonio spun in his chair to look at him, "Honestly, don't know exactly, baby shower of some sort, Gabby's in charge." Adam scrunched up his face, "Do I really have to be there?" he really didn't want to go to a baby shower.

"Yes, you're going, stop complaining." Kim chimed in as she walked in from the hallway. Antonio pointed at Kim, "She's the boss, I'd do whatever she says." He said over his shoulder to Adam. "Everyone here is going, do I make myself clear?" Kim pointed at every member of the team as they all nodded their heads. "Good, it's for Sylvie, she didn't get one last time and she deserves it." She said firmly. Antonio smiled at Kim and mouthed 'Thank You' at her.

Sylvie was annoyed, she felt as big as a house and still had six more weeks until the baby was due, she was uncomfortable all the time, she barely slept, and Antonio was avoiding the baby sex subject again. She didn't want to get up and get dressed but she had committed to volunteering at a charity event and there was no way she was going to back out. She just wished Gabby hadn't roped her into it in the first place. She sighed and scooted out of bed deciding it was time to get ready before Kim came to pick her up.

Kim pulled up to the building and parked at the doors, Sylvie wasn't really paying attention and was surprised when her door opened and she turned her head to find Antonio standing there. She looked at Kim who smiled and shrugged her shoulders and motioned for Sylvie to go. Sylvie gave Antonio her hand and he helped her out of the car. "Umm, what are you doing here? You didn't volunteer." She was confused. "Gabby asked me to come." He smiled at her. "Let's wait for Kim." He motioned toward the car, not wanting her to miss anything. Sylvie looked at him skeptically. "You better not be doing anything sneaky." She warned, she hated surprises especially when she was the center of attention. "We're here to volunteer, what are you talking about?" he lied, trying not to give the surprise away.

Kim walked past them and nodded at Antonio, Antonio took Sylvie's hand, "ready?" he asked as he led her inside. Sylvie was confused and had a feeling she had been set up. Antonio was acting strange, he grabbed her hand and started dragging her toward a set of double doors at the end of the hall. He stopped just short of them and took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, he turned his body to face her and leaned in and kissed her on her forehead before laying his forehead against hers, "Please don't be mad." He smiled and kissed her again and pulled away. "Why would I be mad?" she asked as he opened the door and pulled her into a dark room. The lights suddenly flashed and the crowed yelled 'SURPRISE'.

Sylvie couldn't contain her emotions and she started to sob. Antonio pulled her against him and held her. "You're an asshole." She breathed into his neck as she hugged him. "I wanted to do something for you, Gabby's been planning it for a month." He squeezed her a little tighter. She spun in his arms to face the crowd and smiled. "Thank you everyone." She was embarrassed but very happy that her friends had shown. "Oh, that's not all, are you ready to find out what that baby is?" Gabby yelled from across the room. Sylvie turned to look at Antonio "really?" Antonio nodded and gave Gabby a thumbs up, all of a sudden confetti shot out of confetti cannons making the whole room a sea of blue and silver.

Sylvie gasped and spun back around to face Antonio, "A boy!" she said barely able to contain her excitement. He smiled and wrapped her in a hug, "A boy, are you happy with that?" he whispered in her ear. Sylvie pulled back and pressed her forehead against his, "Of course I am." She grinned and kissed him. The two were back in their own world oblivious to the applause and excitement going on around them.

"Ahem" Gabby was standing beside Antonio trying to get their attention. "I know you two would like to stay in your bubble but unfortunately you have a hundred guests who would like to congratulate you." Gabby laughed. Antonio sighed and threw his arm around Sylvie's shoulders and started leading her towards the crowd.

Four hours and the stream of people who wanted to congratulate them had finally died down and most people had already left, Antonio had disappeared with the guys somewhere leaving her all alone to deal with everyone. Gabby was busy trying to clean up and get the overwhelming amount gifts corralled and moved by the guys to the cars. Sylvie shut her eyes for a moment and felt someone slide in beside her at the table. She opened her eyes to find Emily beside her, "I wanted to say congrats and thanks for inviting me, I had a lot of fun." Emily smiled at her. "Thank you and you're welcome, you're a friend so of course you were invited." Sylvie tried to fake a smile but just didn't have it in her, she was exhausted.

"Do you need anything? You look tired." Emily asked, she was concerned, Sylvie looked more exhausted than when she finished her 24-hour shifts. Sylvie looked around and spotted the first person she thought would know where Antonio was. "Yes, I do actually. Do you see the blonde over there?" Sylvie pointed to where she stood and Emily nodded. "Can you go get her, please? Her name is Hailey." Sylvie begged. "Of course, be right back."

"Hailey?" Emily asked the woman who was faced away from her talking to a group of others. Hailey spun around "Yes" she smiled. Emily was taken aback by Hailey's smile and forgot why she was there for a moment. "Did you need something?" Hailey looked annoyed. Emily focused, "Oh yeah sorry" she laughed nervously, "Brett, umm, Sylvie sent me over here, she wants you." Hailey looked over Emily's shoulder and saw Sylvie, "Oh, okay." She said and started toward Sylvie.

"Sylvie, what do you need?" Hailey asked, she noted Sylvie didn't look so good, she looked tired and thought she should probably find Antonio. "Do you know where Antonio is?" Sylvie sounded like she was going to cry. "I'm going to go get him, hold on, and you, can you run and get Gabby?" she pointed at Emily hoping she knew who Gabby was. Emily nodded her head and took off for Gabby, "I'll be right back okay?" Hailey reassured her and took off for Antonio.

Antonio came running back when Hailey found him. He found Sylvie sitting at a table with Gabby crouched in front of her. "Are you okay?" He asked looking between Sylvie and Gabby. "I'm just tired and need to go home." Sylvie complained. Gabby shook her head, "I think she needs to go to the hospital, she has a fever and her pulse is high." Sylvie shook her head, no just take me home I'm fine, I'm just tired."

Antonio turned and looked at Adam, "Go get my truck" he threw his keys at him and Adam took off running. "You guys are over reacting" Sylvie whined as Antonio scooped her up and started carrying her towards the door. "After Sophia, it's not overreacting." He whispered to her. Sylvie sighed knowing she wasn't going to win.

Adam pulled the truck up and was going to jump out when he saw the commotion. "Stay in the truck, you're driving." Antonio yelled at him. Antonio opened the door and climbed in the back as Kelly passed an unconscious Sylvie to him. "What the hell happened?" Adam turned around to see what was going on. "She passed out, now turn around." Gabby climbed and slammed the door. "Hit the lights and drive, now!" Antonio yelled as he pulled out his phone to call dispatch.


	23. Chapter 23

Antonio sat in the chair across the room from Sylvie staring at her, she was asleep and the only sounds in the room were the steady beeps of her and the baby's heart rate monitors. He was pissed but couldn't decide who he was more pissed at, himself for not noticing that Sylvie was exhausted to the point of hospitalization or Sylvie for pushing herself so hard. He'd been so overwhelmed at work and trying to get back into the swing of things that he had left her to handle more than she should have while working twenty-four hour shifts. He stood and stretched not able to take the sitting and waiting anymore, he had enough of sitting in hospital rooms to last a lifetime and needed to escape for just a little bit.

"He's not answering anyone's texts or calls and it's been four hours Gabby!" Sylvie was panicking, she knew Antonio would never leave her alone in the hospital and take off for hours without letting her know he was going. "Hey, it's Antonio he's okay, Adam and Kim are looking for him. I bet he stopped somewhere and got caught up talking or helping with something." Gabby was trying to keep Sylvie calm but she was barely keeping herself together. Antonio never disappeared without answering and he would never leave Sylvie alone, her imagination was running wild.

"Why did he leave in the first place? He's never just left." Sylvie was crying, she couldn't hold it back anymore, her tiredness and the stress of the day finally got to her. Gabby climbed into the bed with her and wrapped her in her arms. "Shhh, it will be okay just calm down, the stress isn't good for you or my little nephew." Gabby was trying her best to calm her but Sylvie was too far gone, the only thing left to do was let her finish her meltdown and hold her while she sobbed.

Gabby's phone rang and she grabbed it before it woke Sylvie, she had fallen back asleep after she had finished crying. "Hey baby, have you found anything yet?" she whispered to Matt. "No, were in the area his GPS and phone last pinged. It's dark but were looking, how's Sylvie?" Gabby looked down at Sylvie sound asleep with a pained look on her face. "She's asleep but she's exhausted and worried. Please find him quick." She begged him. "We will, I promise. I'll call if we find something, love you." He answered. "Love you too." She whispered as she hung up her phone and readjusted herself to lie down next to Sylvie.

Voight stood there looking at the group in front of him, his own Intelligence team and Firehouse 51. "Okay, Antonio's phone and GPS last pinged in this area, I want you in teams of two, you're gonna fan out and search over every square inch of this area for his truck and him. If you find something immediately report it on the radio. Check every door, stairs, and window on every building. Don't leave anything unturned. Do I make myself clear?" he asked as everyone nodded their heads. "Okay, good, get going."

Antonio didn't know how much longer he could hold on. He thought the water would be warmer in July but it was the middle of the night and he was shivering in his wet clothes trying to cling to the wall and the little boy. "I know it's cold but I need you to stay awake okay buddy." He said through chattering teeth as two big eyes stared up at him, the little boy nodded. His arms were killing him, he kept switching back and forth between arms but it didn't matter, three hours of hanging there had taken its toll. He screamed out again for help but he knew in the middle of the night and the sound of the waves hitting the wall there was little chance of being heard. He had dropped his cell on the ground before he jumped in underestimating the height of the wall.

He had only wanted to take a break from the hospital and clear his head before Sylvie woke up so he drove to a part of the river he was familiar with, an industrial area that was quiet at night and parked his truck. He took off on foot wanting to walk some of the anxiety out when he heard something, it almost didn't register but he stopped and listened, "Help." He knew he heard it that time, it was faint and barely audible but it was a cry. "Call out, where are you?" he yelled as he looked over the edge searching for the source of the cry. He spotted him, a boy maybe ten clinging to the wall. "I'm coming hold on." He ran to where the boy was and tried to reach down but was too short. Without hesitation he jumped in and grabbed him, "I got you." He reassured the boy as he attempted to push him up but the wall was a good twelve feet, there was no way they were getting back out.

"Antonio!" Kim yelled as her and Adam walked the street looking for any sign of their friend. "Seriously what was he doing down here and what the hell happened?" Adam was getting frustrated. "We don't know that he was down here, we only know his truck is." Kim pointed out as she tried the door to a building, she jiggled the handle and it was locked. "Antonio!" she called again. "We'll find him." She said determinedly as she made her way toward the river wall shining her light in every window she passed. Adam was chattering pointlessly when Kim threw her fist up and he automatically stopped and waited for instruction. Kim placed her finger over her lips and motioned for him to follow her forward. She thought she heard something but wasn't sure of the direction it came from. She listened again but didn't hear anything. "I thought I heard something, I guess I was hearing stuff." She sighed and motioned for Adam to turn around and start to head to the next street.

Antonio was barely hanging on, he was beyond tired and his eyes were starting to droop, he heard something, talking he thought and his eyes popped open and he yelled but his voice was hoarse and not very loud but he kept trying. He waited for a moment but didn't hear anything, he sighed and checked the boy, he knew he was in bad shape. "Aiden I need you to open your eyes." He tried shaking him but he didn't wake up. "Come on I need you to open them, please." Antonio was crying, he couldn't go through this again. He knew it was useless but mustered all his strength and screamed as loud as he could.

"He could be." Adam stopped and looked at Kim who had wide eyes and she spun and started running with Adam right behind her. "You heard that right?" She yelled over her shoulder. "Yeah I did, where the hell was it coming from?" She stopped at the end of the alley they had just come back up. "Antonio!" She screamed. She was shining her flashlight everywhere trying to get a hint of movement. "Adam, where did it come from?" she was frantic; she knew she heard it and she was positive it was him. Adam radioed to Voight, "We pretty sure we heard him boss, can we get some assistance over here?" Adam yelled into the radio.

Kim was screaming for Antonio to call out. "Kim, shhh, be quiet a minute." Kim went silent and she heard it, it was very faint but it was her name, she looked over the edge into the water and shined her light. "Shine it further down." Adam instructed, her flashlight hit someone clinging to the wall. "Oh god! Antonio!" she screamed as she took off in a sprint to his location. "Hold on we'll get you out." She breathed a sigh of relief as she dropped to her knees and attempted to reach down for him. "We got you, just hang on." Adam hollered down to him, "Boss, we found him, we need the squad guys here now." Adam yelled into the radio. Kelly rounded the corner with Cruz close behind, "We're here." Kelly panted out of breath. "He's in the water ten maybe fifteen feet down with a kid." Adam explained.

"Capp, get squad here now." Kelly radioed Capp their location. "Hey Tony, I'm coming down. Can you hold on another couple minutes?" Antonio nodded his head, completely out of energy and his throat was on fire from screaming, he couldn't yell anymore. Kelly saw squad round the corner and ran to meet it; he grabbed the gear and ran back setting it up as quickly as possible. "Okay, I'm coming down."

"I'm going to put this around the kid and tie him to me, then I'm going to get a harness around you and they will pull you up" Kelly explained as he reached Antonio. Antonio was exhausted, "just get him up, he's been out for awhile, I'm okay."

Antonio came over the edge and was pulled up to his feet, immediately a body came flying at him and wrapped him in a hug. "God, I was so worried about you, don't ever do that again." Kim didn't want to let him go. "I'm fine, I promise." He croaked out. Kim held him away from her and looked him over, "what the hell happened?" she was confused on how he would end up in the river clinging to a child. Antonio shook his head, "later, I'm going with the kid." He said as he pointed in the direction of the ambulance and started for it.

"How is he?" Antonio asked the medic as he climbed in the ambo. "He's alert and his vitals are steady, how long were you guys in there?" Antonio shook his head, "I have no idea, a couple hours at least." The medic looked at him and smiled, "You saved his life, you're a hero, be happy about that." Antonio shook his head. "Maybe later, will he be okay?" Antonio needed Aiden to be okay; he couldn't take any more tragedy. "I think he'll be fine. Any clue who he is? I tried to ask his name and he isn't talking." Antonio had been holding Aiden's gaze for several moments as the ambo rushed towards the hospital.

"His name's Aiden Holden, he's nine." Antonio reached over and brushed Aiden's hair out of face. "You're being really brave buddy, do you want me to stay with you at the hospital until we can find your mom?" Aiden nodded his head. "Okay, we're in this together then, I won't leave you." Antonio held his fist up and Aidan reached up and fist bumped him.

"Hey, Syl" Gabby whispered while gently shaking Sylvie's shoulder trying to wake her without startling her. Sylvie opened her eyes and blinked at Gabby, "They found him." Sylvie quickly sat up, "Is he okay? Where was he? Where is he?" Gabby held up her hands, "Whoa, I don't know details, Matt said he would explain when they get here. There was something about a kid and the river, he's on his way in the ambulance."

Sylvie started to climb out of the bed and was unhooking herself from all the wires and machines. "What are you doing? You need to rest." Sylvie looked at Gabby like she had lost her mind. "No, I NEED to see my husband, you know your brother, the one who has been missing for hours and is being brought in by ambulance." Gabby sighed, she knew she wasn't going to win this battle because she would do the exact same thing if it were Matt. "Okay fine, just keep the IV in and I'll help you with everything else and your riding in a wheelchair."

Antonio stared at Aiden who hadn't cried once through the whole ordeal, he didn't want to leave his side until he knew his mom was there with him but he also needed to check on Sylvie. He knew she had to be worried about him disappearing and that was the last thing she needed. The ambulance came to a stop and Antonio jumped out to help the medic get Aiden out. The medic called the boys vitals out to April, Maggie yelled to take him to a room. "Antonio we're putting you in room 3." Maggie informed him. "I'm fine, I'm staying with him." He answered as continued to follow Aiden to the room he was assigned. "Just so you know, your wife is on her way down and I bet she's going to have something to say about that." Antonio stopped and looked at her for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and continuing to follow Aiden. "Bring her to me when she get down here please." He said over his shoulder.

Antonio was sitting in a chair across the room from Aiden's bed, he had shut his eyes for only moment when he felt someone crawl into his lap, he opened his eyes to find himself buried in a mess of blonde curls and Sylvie entangled around him. "What happened?" Sylvie was curious, she knew nothing, she had come straight down and hadn't talked to anyone. Antonio held his finger up to his mouth and pointed at the bed where Aiden was sound asleep. He helped her up and motioned for her to go to the hall.

Antonio shut the door behind them, "I'm fine, I found a boy in the river and I jumped in without thinking and underestimated the height of the wall." He stared into those big blue eyes and could tell she had been worried and he felt horrible for putting that on her. "I'm sorry," he started but Sylvie grabbed his hand and pulled him into the empty room next door, she could tell he felt guilty and that was the last thing she wanted when he did something so selfless.

She pushed him against the wall and held him there with one hand against his chest just staring into his eyes. He began to speak and she shushed him, she leaned in and kissed him, she let it linger before pulling back and placing her forehead against his. "You are a good man and I know you don't always believe that but you are. You're a good husband, a good father, and a good friend. What you did does not require an apology and I'm a big girl and not as fragile as everyone seems to think, so stop worrying so much about me." Antonio let out a deep breath that he had been holding since he jumped into the water and realized he didn't have a way out, he could feel his body relaxing and the only thing he wanted to do was climb into bed with Sylvie and sleep for a week.

"I promised the boy I would stay with him until his mom got here." Antonio sounded defeated. "Then I'm waiting with you, Gabby went back up to get Dr. Kinney to discharge me so I can go home after you get checked out." Antonio peeked up at her and smirked, he knew she wouldn't let him leave without being cleared. "I'll get checked out, I just wanted him to be seen first."

"Antonio." He felt someone shaking his shoulder and opened his eyes to find April standing there, the room was still dark and he didn't think he had been asleep very long. "Ms. Holden, Aiden's mom, is here and she is asking to speak to you privately before coming in to see him." April whispered trying not to wake Aiden. Antonio looked over and saw Sylvie playing on her phone and reached out for her hand clearly wanting her to come with him. He nodded at April and stood to follow her out the door.

April led him and Sylvie into a consult room down the hall where a woman who didn't look like she could be a day over twenty-five sat. She stood when they entered. "Are you Detective Dawson?" she asked. "Umm, yes, Antonio and my wife Sylvie." He introduced them. She came around the table and wrapped Antonio in a hug. "I'm Sam, thank you so much for what you did and being there at the right time." Antonio hugged her back, "I'm thankful I was too and it's my job, I would do it a thousand times over."

"No, it's more than that, you were his guardian angel. His friends were just going to leave him there and refused to even acknowledge that they had seen him today. They finally confessed after they found out he was found and was safe." She was clearly upset by the friends' actions. "He said they were playing dare games and his was to do a handstand on the river wall and he slipped and fell and when they couldn't reach him they ran away and never came back." Antonio filled her in on part of the conversation that him and Aiden had while they were clinging to the wall.

"I have to remember they're nine year olds but still I just want to throttle each one of them for leaving their friend there like that, they're all in severe trouble." She had been in contact with each of their parents over the last twenty minutes. "I had him young and everyone has always just assumed I would mess up but I love him and I would be lost without him, do you have kids?" She smiled at Antonio. Antonio nodded, "three, two girls and a boy, and number four, another boy right here." He reached over and touched Sylvie's stomach.

Sam's eyes followed and lit up when she noticed Sylvie was pregnant, "Oh a new baby, when are you due?" Sylvie chuckled, "Six weeks, but it feels like an eternity." Sam leaned into Sylvie and gave her a hug, "Thank you for having such a selfless husband, he truly is a hero, I wish you and your family all the best." Sylvie looked over at Antonio and winked, "Thank you, he's our hero too."

It was seven in the morning and neither one of them had slept, Aiden was reunited with his mom, Sylvie was discharged, and Antonio was given a clean bill of health. Sylvie sat in the passenger seat staring at Antonio, she could see the worry and stress was taking a toll on him, he looked exhausted mentally and physically. "I'm not going back to work." She knew he didn't want her to but he would never ask her to quit, he would let her make up her own mind of when she was ready. Antonio sighed and looked at her, "thank you." It was all he could think to say, he knew she didn't want to quit yet but he would be lying if he said it didn't make him feel better.

Sylvie sat at Antonio's desk and watched as Sophia ran away from Adam laughing as he pretended to be a monster. She remembered not too long ago being so scared to be up here like it was a forbidden place but now it felt like a second home, she felt just as at ease here as she did in the firehouse. She had spent the better part of the past week floating between the firehouse and district, she was bored out of her mind at home and still had a week until her due date.

"Okay listen up." Jay was standing at the end of the room in front of whiteboard, "This is VERY important." Everyone stopped what they were doing to pay attention to him and he flipped the board over. "We are officially on Baby Dawson watch and the pool is now open." He started laughing as he pointed at the board with a calendar marked with time slots. "Ooh, put me down for a hundred dollars on Wednesday at 7pm, that's the due date right?" Adam hollered from across the room. "Yes and I'll take tomorrow at 9pm for a hundred." Jay started scribbling names onto the board. "This is not happening." Antonio looked annoyed as he came out of the kitchen and attempted to take the marker from Jay's hand.

Jay ran away from him giggling like a little kid attempting to hide behind Hailey, "Yes it is, who's next?" Jay said pointing to Kevin. Antonio stood blocking the board, "It's fine, just let them have fun besides I'm going to win." Sylvie said nonchalantly motioning Antonio to come over to her. "How do you figure? We're picking dates today, you can't possibly know exactly when you will have the baby." Jay responded looking at her skeptically, Sylvie just shrugged and smirked at him, "I'll go last." Was all she said.

Everyone took their turns; the pool was well over a thousand dollars. "Anyone else?" Jay asked. "Platt wants fifty on tomorrow at 2am." Kim said as she came up the stairs. "Antonio?" Jay looked at him. "I'm out" Antonio didn't want any part of it; he didn't want to bet on his child. "Sylvie?" Sylvie looked at Antonio and winked before answering Jay. "Put me down for a hundred on Thursday at 11pm." Jay looked at the board, "The day after the due date?" he asked. "No, I meant today." Everyone turned to look at her and she laughed.

"Oh that's no fair, you're cheating." Jay whined from across room. "You're in labor?" Antonio had a panicked look on his face. Sylvie smiled and nodded her head, "I have been for about three hours, I'm just waiting it out." She chuckled.

Adam rolled over and grabbed his phone as it buzzed on the nightstand. "Did she have the baby?" Kim asked as she squinted from the brightness of his phone. "Jay's going to be pissed, Trudy won the pot, he was born at 2:01 am." Adam laughed. "God we'll hear about it for weeks. Let him them know well be up after work tomorrow, I'm going back to sleep." Kim kissed him on the cheek and covered her head with the blanket.

Antonio sat in the recliner next to Sylvie with the baby on his chest, he was exhausted and the sun was starting to rise. Sylvie was sound asleep in the bed and Eva and Diego had left awhile before. Everything had gone smoothly and her and the baby were perfectly healthy. "Hey little man" Antonio looked down at the little bundle nestled against his chest. "You know you chose a very special day to arrive, today is a very good man's birthday, he was a hell of a friend."

Antonio tried not to cry thinking about Al, it had been a little over two years since he was killed and the hole it left in the unit was still unbearable. "It's kinda funny you chose today because you're named after him, his name was Alvin and you are Elias Alvin, one day I'll tell you all about him." Antonio reclined his chair and covered himself and the baby with a blanket. "I think we should probably try to sleep before you get hungry." He whispered as he closed his eyes.


	24. Chapter 24

Antonio grabbed a pillow and shoved it over his head trying to block out the noise, he groaned and threw the pillow across the room. Climbing out of bed he pulled on a t-shirt and headed towards the bathroom. "Give him to me." He lifted Elias up and held him to his chest, "Okay buddy you need to stop crying and sleep." He pretended to lecture his screaming son. He looked at Sylvie, she looked exhausted and she had obviously been crying, the tear stains and puffy face gave her away. He held his hand out and she took it and just sat there holding it. He tugged on it and she stood as he pulled her into him. "Go back to bed and sleep, you need it." He whispered as he held her tight and kissed her on the forehead.

"No, you have to work in the morning, I'm okay." She protested as she laid her head against him. "I can handle him for a couple hours while you sleep, now go lay down, I mean it." He pushed her toward the door.

Elias was a month old and hadn't slept more than two hours at a time and seemed to cry nonstop all the hours in between. He was driving everyone in the house crazy, Sylvie was taking the brunt of the responsibility with Antonio returning to work just a week after he was born. He felt bad but there wasn't much he could do, Gabby and his mom had offered to help but Sylvie was determined to handle it all on her own.

Antonio headed toward the living room with Elias and made himself comfortable on the couch with the baby in this lap. Elias was still crying but settled as soon as Antonio put the bottle in his mouth. "Listen little man, you need to ease up on your mom." Elias was staring at Antonio with big brown eyes as he sucked his bottle down at an impressive rate. "She likes to prove that she can do everything and doesn't know when to ask for help, so I need your help to make sure she doesn't over do it. That means I need you to stop crying all the time and just give her a little break during the day or night."

Antonio felt someone shaking him and opened his eyes, the last thing he remembered was burping the baby and laying down to watch TV. "You're going to be late for work dad." Diego was trying to wake him up and picked Elias up. "I'm up, I've got him, I'll take him to Sylvie." Antonio sat up and Diego handed him back to his dad. Antonio grabbed his phone and checked the time, he groaned, it was eight thirty and he was already late. He texted Voight and headed upstairs.

"Dude you look like shit." Jay teased as Antonio threw his jacket over the back of his chair. "I wanna see what you look like after no sleep and a screaming baby all night because I can loan you one." Antonio snapped back, not in the mood to deal with anyone's bullshit. "Joking Tony." Jay held his hands up in mock surrender.

The day had been rough, it was only one and Antonio was on his umpteenth cup of coffee trying to keep himself awake. "Has Eli stopped crying at all?" Kim asked from across her desk. Antonio quietly shook his head, "How's Sylvie holding up?" she asked. "She's not but she's stubborn and wont ask for help." Antonio explained wishing she would just accept the help from their friends.

Antonio's phone buzzed, it was Sylvie, "Hey honey." He answered and heard nothing but Sylvie crying and screaming on the other end. Antonio jumped up and headed for Voight's office. "Sylvie! Calm down." He yelled, trying to get her attention. He couldn't understand what she was saying. "Is this Mrs. Dawson' s husband?" A males voice was all of a sudden on the phone. Antonio was panicking and Voight was looking at him confused. "Yes, who is this?" he demanded.

"This is Officer Tillman with CPD, we've had an incident and need you to come to the grocery store on Milwaukee." The officer stated calmly. "What is going on?" Antonio yelled into the phone. "I will explain..." Antonio cut the officer off, "This is Detective Dawson and Sergeant Voight with the Intelligence Unit and you will explain to me right now." Antonio screamed into the phone as him and Voight ran through the building towards Voight's car.

The officer stammered, "Umm, your son is missing, we believe he was kidnapped." Antonio's heart stopped, there was no way this was happening again. "What the fuck do you mean my son is missing?" He was yelling at the top of his lungs. "We believe he was taken out of the cart while your wife was shopping, we're pulling the video right now."

It was the longest ride of his life, Hank pulled into the parking lot and Antonio took off out the door before the car even came to a stop. He tore through the crowd pushing people out of the way not giving a single care who he was hitting. He saw her blonde hair and made a mad dash for her, wrapping her and Sophia in his arms. She was hysterical, "What happened?" he held her face in his hands looking in her eyes. Sylvie kept shaking her head and held onto Antonio as tight as she could. "He was there and I turned around for only a minute and when I turned back around he wasn't in his carseat." She sobbed into his chest.

Antonio felt a hand on his back and was surprised to find Adam when he turned around. The team must of followed when him and Voight tore out of the bullpen. "Voight is getting command of the scene, Kev's pulling the surveillance footage now." Adam explained to them. Antonio nodded at him and returned his attention to Sylvie.

"I'm sorry." Sylvie kept repeating as she sobbed. "You didn't do anything wrong, we'll get him back." He whispered as he held her as tight as he could. He saw Trudy heading towards them. "I'm going to leave you with Trudy and I'm going to help the team find Elias." He put his forehead to hers, "I'm going to find him, I promise." He pulled back and kissed her on the head.

Antonio headed toward the office where the team was watching the video. "Did it catch anything?" he asked desperately. Kevin moved out of the way to show him what they caught, "We can see Sylvie here, pushing the cart with Elias in his carseat and Sophia in the back but here she goes around the corner and we can't see anything after that." Kev turned to look at Antonio who was staring intensely at the screen. "Play it back." He demanded. Kev backed it up and hit play, "There!" Antonio pointed at the screen, "A shadow, see that? It's moving out of frame like there's a door or something." Antonio spun around and ran for that area of the store.

He stood there staring at the row of refrigerator doors in the milk section, none of which could be used to escape. He started to examine each more carefully when he noticed a small door hidden behind a post that could be used for employees to access the refrigerator, it was easily missed by anyone who wasn't looking for it. "Over here!" He yelled to the others.

"What is it?" Kevin asked as Antonio pulled the door open as far as it would go and squeezed through. "I found this access door, I'm pretty sure whoever took Elias used this." He drew his gun as he pushed the rest of the way in, Kev right behind him.

"There's a dock off this refrigerated section for the trucks to unload, the perp could've easily slipped out the back. Hailey, Kim go find video either from here or in the alley." Voight explained and instructed the two women. "On it." Kim nodded her head at Antonio and spun around headed out the door with Hailey trailing behind her.

Antonio stood on the dock staring at all the different ways the kidnapper could have headed with the baby, "With the intersection right there, they could have headed anywhere." Antonio sighed. "We'll find him but you know someone had to have been watching and following her for a while to know when she would be at the store and to know about that access door? This wasn't a grab and run, I bet she knows this person from somewhere." Voight placed his hand on Antonio's shoulder trying to comfort him.

"How the hell are we going to find him, we've got nothing except a shadow." Antonio was pissed, "It's been almost an hour and we've only made it to the docks." He was starting to let his anger take over and let it drive him, crying and wallowing would do no good and wouldn't bring his son back any faster. Voight grabbed both of Antonio's shoulders and looked him square in the eyes, "We will find him, I made a promise to Sylvie when she was pregnant with Sophia that I would always take care of you and your kids and I don't plan on letting her down today." Voight was not going to default on that promise.

"Hey Sarge, Tonio, we've got something from the pharmacy camera on the corner." Kim's voice broke through on the walkie-talkie. Antonio looked at Voight and tore off in a sprint towards Kim's location.

"So this camera faces the exit for the alley, now right here we see this blue truck exit about two minutes after we see the shadow moving off camera on the store video." Hailey was moving the camera frame by frame explaining to Voight and Antonio what they had found.

Hailey spun around and looked at Antonio. "We're already running the partial plate and it appears it's two females inside the truck and Jay's running down traffic camera's to see if we can track them."

Antonio stood silent for a moment just staring at the truck on the screen, "We need to check the security cameras at my house, I have them facing up and down the block." He turned to leave and Kim grabbed his arm, "Go get Sylvie, she needs you and Hailey and I will come and help go through footage." She looked at Voight and he nodded his head in agreeance.

"I feel like we're being punished." Sylvie said sadly from the passenger seat. Antonio looked at her confused, "Why would we be being punished?" he asked. "I don't know but it always feels like bad stuff is happening to us and now look Elias was kidnapped." Sylvie started crying. Antonio reached over and grabbed her hand pulling it up to his chest and just held it there while he drove towards home.

The house was full, Eva and Diego returned home as soon as they heard what had happened and Antonio parents, Matt and Gabby, and Laura had made their ways there also. But for as many people who were there the house was a quiet as a mouse, no one knew what to do or what to say, Sylvie had taken Sophia up to their bedroom and shut herself in.

Antonio opened the door and sat on the edge of the bed, Sophia was asleep and Sylvie was curled up staring blankly at the wall. "You know it's not your fault right?" Antonio asked her. "It is, I shouldn't have taken my eyes off him." She said flatly, her voice void of any emotion. "You can't watch him every second of everyday and you're exhausted. This is on whoever took him, not you." He tried to reassure her. "I'm going to go down and help Kim and Hailey go through the footage, do you need anything?" Sylvie shook her head and continued to stare at the wall, "Okay, I'll be downstairs." He kissed her on the head and shut the door behind him.

"Fuck, we're getting nowhere!" Antonio shouted, frustrated that they had reviewed two weeks' worth of footage and hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Kim watched Antonio as he paced the small basement room, she knew he was starting to lose it and probably wouldn't be able to keep his emotions together much longer. "Hey Hailey, can you go upstairs and check in with Voight, let him know that we haven't found anything yet?" Kim wanted to give Antonio a chance to fall apart without anyone around to witness. Hailey looked from Kim to Antonio and understood, "Yeah, I'll probably be a bit, I want a full update."

Kim watched Hailey disappear up the stairs, she went to Antonio and wrapped him in a hug, both just stood there silently hanging onto each other. "We'll find him." Kim spoke after several minutes, Antonio nodded his head into her shoulder. "He so little and defenseless, when Diego was taken at least he was nine, he could fight back, he could scream. God, I would give anything just to hear him crying again." Antonio squeezed her a little tighter.

"Sylvie's blaming herself, she hasn't said it but I know she thinks everyone blames her." He sighed and pulled away from Kim, "What if we don't find him?" Kim could see the tears in Antonio's eyes starting to pool. "Don't think like that, we will. This is what we do and we're the best at it, you know that." She grabbed his hand but he pulled away. "But we fail too, you know that, so what if this is one of the times we do?" Kim didn't know what to say, she could give him all the promises in the world but there were no guarantees when it came to their line of work and she knew that. He was right they absolutely could fail.

"Listen," She grabbed his wrist and pulled him back to her, tears streaming down his face. "IF, and I mean, IF as in very slight half a percent chance, we don't find him, we will NEVER stop looking, I will spend the rest of my life searching and so would every other person in this unit. This negative shit isn't going to help us find him any faster, I need you to know that you will find him so I know that your whole head is in the game, do you understand?"

Antonio wiped his hands down his face and turned his attention back to the screen wanting to avoid any more emotional crap with Kim, "Let's go through the last couple of days again and see if we might have missed anything." He looked back at her and nodded his head, "Thanks" was all he said and Kim knew they were done discussing it.

Antonio pushed the door open to their room and peeked in, he could see Sylvie curled up on the bed, he didn't say anything and pulled the door shut and headed back down the stairs. "She won't leave the room, the only person she'll talk to is Sophia, she hardly eats, I don't know what to do, I don't know how to help her." He shrugged his shoulders and just stared at Gabby begging her to give him the answers he needed to help his wife. Gabby sighed, she knew they were both having a hard time but Antonio was trying to hold himself together for the kids and Sylvie, "Elias has been missing for a month Antonio, there is no helping her, she's never going to be okay until you can put him back in her arms."


	25. Chapter 25

Sylvie sat with Sophia between her legs on the floor trying to braid her and get the bow in for the Christmas party at the firehouse that she really didn't want to attend but Gabby and Antonio were forcing her. She finished and the braid was lopsided, but she really didn't care. "Time to get your dress on, can you go get it for mommy?" Two-year-old Sophia looked at her and nodded her head. "it's on your bed, hurry up." Sylvie sighed as she watched Sophia take off running for the stairs.

She pulled out her phone 'What time will you be here, I just wanna get there and leave as soon as possible, maybe ten minutes.' She texted Antonio.

Antonio felt his phone buzz and pulled it out, he sighed and leaned back in his chair and stared at the pics on his desk. His favorite was one of Sylvie holding Elias with the kids shoved into the hospital bed with her, but it was also the one that hurt his heart the most. 'I'll be there at six we can stay however long you want.' He hit send and sat his phone down on his desk and rubbed his hands down his face.

"Is she any better?" Adam asked as he wheeled his chair over by Antonio. "Would you be?" Antonio retorted, "Dude, I don't know how you even function, mines not even here yet and I worry about everything." Antonio looked at Adam and patted him on the knee, "We have four kids, someone has to keep it together and I think she has a right to fall apart, so I'll let her. And the worrying, it never goes away, Eva's almost twenty-one and I still worry constantly, it's like all of them are on a never-ending loop in my brain."

Adam nodded at the dry erase board that had become a permanent fixture next to Kim and Antonio's desks. "We'll find him, three months is a long time but we're not giving up." Antonio glanced at him and turned to look at the board, "We haven't had a new lead in over two weeks." After Intelligence had dedicated a whole month to searching for Elias, Antonio, Kim, and Kevin were assigned to the case permanently so the rest of the unit could focus on other investigations but still help out when needed.

"Listen, I'm here for all of you and so is Kim but last time Kim went to check on Sylvie, she was very standoffish with Kim and I think it has something to do with her being pregnant." Antonio nodded his head, he knew that was the reason, Sylvie didn't like the mention of babies and he didn't think she had been in Elias's room for over a month, she had pretty much given up hope. "Just keep coming around, she needs all the family she can get and actually I'm going to see if Kelly can talk to her also, he's always been able to get through to her."

Sylvie pulled Sophia's dress over her head, "Mommy sad." Sophia frowned at her and patted Sylvie's cheek. "Mommy's sad and will be until brother comes home." She frowned back at Sophia and pulled her in for a hug and kissed her on the forehead. "I love you baby, even if I'm sad." She whispered to the toddler.

Sylvie stood in the corner, she didn't feel like socializing and this firehouse didn't really feel like a home anymore, just a bunch of distant memories that really didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Everyone was avoiding eye contact with her; they weren't really sure what to say and were scared of saying the wrong thing. What do you say to the mother of a newborn who had been missing for three months?

She watched Antonio carrying Sophia around and felt a bit of jealously and anger, their son was missing but he was able to still carry on as if everything was fine, he laughed at jokes and talked to without people them looking at him as if he was a china doll that would break if handled wrong. He was so natural at acting like nothing was wrong and not drawing attention to himself. She wanted him to be a fall down mess like her, she knew her thinking wasn't rational but in this moment she didn't care.

"How're you doing?" Sylvie was pulled from her thoughts by Foster, she was the first person who dared approach her outside Gabby and Kelly. Sylvie shrugged her shoulders, "I'm alive, I guess." She sighed. "Sylvie, I wanted to say how bad I feel for you and your family and that I will hold your job for as long as you need and will step aside when you're ready to come back." Foster wrapped her arm around Sylvie's shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

"I'm not sure if I'm coming back but I appreciate it. When I make up my mind, I will let you know and if I decide to leave, I'll recommend you for my replacement." Sylvie broke from the hug, not in the mood for physical contact. "Thank you, I appreciate that." Foster smiled at her. Sylvie feigned a smile and excused herself from the conversation. She stepped away and focused her attention back to her husband and daughter who were making their way around the crowd, she pulled out her phone and texted Antonio that she was ready to leave.

"We should have stayed longer, it's good for you to be around other people Sylvie." Sylvie was sitting facing away from Antonio staring out the passenger window watching the city lights fly by as he drove them home. "The only thing that would be good for me is if you would stop this bullshit happy show and find our son." She spat at him, knowing it was a low blow.

Antonio reached over to grab her hand, but she pulled away. "You know I'm trying but we haven't had a lead in over two weeks." He glanced over at her, but she refused to look at him. "Laura told me you were willing to do anything when Diego was missing and you pretty much did, but it feels like Elias isn't as important, maybe because you never really wanted him in the first place." She needed a punching bag and Antonio was her target at the moment.

"We're not doing this in front of Sophia." He knew she was upset; she had barely said anything to him in months and all her anger and frustration was bound to boil over, he just didn't want it to happen in front of Sophia. "Oh, I forgot Saint Antonio can ignore his children for months when he's having a meltdown, but our baby is fucking missing and he's happy go lucky and I'm not allowed to grieve, talk about a hypocrite." Sylvie was yelling, she didn't care that Sophia was asleep in the backseat or that the roads were slick from the snow storm they had the day before, she only cared that she got her point across.

"Sylvie, this isn't the place." He warned. "Don't tell me when I'm allowed to have feelings, I know you can shut it all away and pretend everything is fine but I'm not you." She was hysterical, she had finally broke and there was no shoving her feelings back in.

Antonio pulled the truck over and turned to look at her, "You wanna do this, then let's do it, come on scream at me in front of your daughter." He pointed back at Sophia who had woken up and was looking at them with wide eyes, scared of what was happening. "But you don't get to tell me how I'm feeling because I'm trying to keep it together so you can fall apart because you're his mother and deserve to feel this however you want." He yelled back at her, his temper taking over.

"Oh, so I'm the crazy one and you get to come in and be the perfect one, the one who has to fix everything, and I won't let you feel how you want, is that it?" Antonio shook his head, he was done he couldn't do this with her when she was being completely irrational, "I don't want to do this with you, I'll say something I'll regret, and I don't want to hurt you." Antonio turned his attention back to the road and started driving again.

"Just say whatever you want for once instead of being a coward." She couldn't help herself, she needed to attack him. He ignored the words; he knew she didn't mean them and if she did, she never meant to say them. They were only a couple blocks from the house, if he could get there then he could get her inside and maybe to bed.

"Fight back, god dammit, I need you to be as fucking pissed off as me." She screamed at him, Sophia started crying and Antonio slammed on the breaks and put the truck in park as he pulled into the driveway. He pulled out his phone and texted Diego to come get Sophia, as soon as she was out of the truck, Antonio lost his shit, he couldn't hold it together anymore.

"I am fucking pissed, I'm pissed at you for losing him, I'm pissed at me for not finding him, I'm pissed at Voight for pulling the unit off his case, I'm pissed at the unit for not trying harder but none of that is going to bring him back. We have other kids that need us not just the one who is missing and one of us has to be the adult and go to work and keep things running." He screamed at her finally able to let all his feelings out.

"So, it is my fault, right? I knew you blamed me." She was sobbing barely able to form the words. "We wouldn't be here if you would have just accepted the help from anyone of our family or friends but no you had to do it all on your own and then you decided to go shopping with them and turned your back. We're fucking lucky both of them aren't missing." He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, he saw the look of complete devastation and betrayal on her face and knew he had gone too far. He needed to back pedal, "I didn't mean it like that." He tried to reel it in, but it was too late.

"I think you should stay somewhere else tonight." She said between sobs as she bailed from the truck and disappeared into the house. Antonio sat there in the dark, he knew he shouldn't have let his anger get the best of him, he always had a way of fucking shit up. He climbed out of the truck and headed inside to find her and apologize.

He tried the handle to their bedroom door, and it was locked, "Syl, let me in so we can talk." He asked knowing he needed to apologize and fix it. "Antonio, I mean it, you better find somewhere else to stay." She sounded serious, "Come on, remember we're okay, even when we're not." He whispered through the door hoping she could hear him.

"We're way past not okay, you need to go, I'll let you know when you can come home." Antonio sighed, "I'll be at Kim and Adam's, I love you." He listened for a reply and when none came, he walked away to find Sophia and Diego.

"Hey buddy, I'm going to spend the night at Kim and Adam's. Can you watch her for a while and then take her to Sylvie?" Diego nodded his head in agreeance, "What's going on Dad?" Antonio sat on the arm of the couch, "She misses Elias and is having a hard time and needs space, so I'm going to give it to her, but I'll be back, don't worry."


	26. Chapter 26

Antonio watched as the pen he threw bounced off his desk and hit Kev square between the eyes. "Dawg, I know you're my superior and all but you gotta watch where your aiming these things." Kev joked as he picked the pen up and threw it back to Antonio's side of their desks. They had been partnered together after Kim had left for maternity leave and when she returned, Voight decided to shake it up and partnered her with Jay, Antonio didn't like it, but Kev was a great, so he didn't complain.

Antonio sighed and slumped in his chair, "Sorry, it's just Sylvie and this counseling she's making us do, we've been in it a year and I don't think we've gotten anywhere; she still won't let me come home." He picked the pen up and pretended to be interested in it.

"How's she doing?" Kev asked knowing they had been having problems since Elias had gone missing. "She's getting better, she said something about going back to work, that's the first she's mentioned going back in a long time." Antonio shrugged his shoulders and spun his chair around in a circle. "I don't think she'll ever be the same again, he's been gone fourteen months and he's been officially added to the missing children's data base. I think she blames me for not finding him." He stared up at the board next to their desks with his case on it, they hadn't had a new lead in almost three months.

"You know none of us have given up and we never will, he's family." Kev tried to comfort Antonio, knowing that he was hurting too.

"Sylvie?" She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned slightly but was careful to keep her eye on Sophia playing on the swings. "Sylvie Dawson? Right?" Sylvie nodded her head skeptical of the blonde woman, she didn't recognize her. "It's me Tashia." Sylvie gave her a confused look, "My little girl, Maddie, used to play with Sophia about a year ago here at this park, I used to have brown hair." The woman clicked in Sylvie's memory and she smiled, "Sorry, it's been a long year, and it's cold so my brain isn't working I guess." She faked a chuckle.

"Oh, for us too, I had a baby boy and life's been a mess since." Sylvie watched as Tashia pulled a toddler from the stroller and sat down next to her. "How old is he?" Sylvie asked hoping to get a glimpse of his face, but he was wrapped up in his snowsuit and blankets. "Just turned a year, his name is Oliver."

Sylvie stared at the baby a moment, he looked a lot bigger than a year old and she couldn't for the life of her remember Tashia ever mentioning being pregnant or looking pregnant for that matter. "Where's your other one, a boy, right? Isn't he about a year now?" The mention of Elias pulled Sylvie from her thoughts, "He's a year and a half, and I'm not sure where he is, he was kidnapped fourteen months ago." Sylvie was always sharp when talking about the subject, she just didn't have it in her to care if others thought she was being brash or rude.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Tashia apologized but Sylvie shook her head, "Please don't apologize, I'm sick of the apologies, he isn't dead, and he will come home." Sylvie stood, preparing to leave, "Can I see him?" Sylvie wanted to see the baby, she knew it was crazy but she wanted to see every face of every little boy who passed by her hoping she would recognize Elias but she knew he would have changed so much in the last year and a half that she would never recognize him even with the age progression from the FBI.

Tashia gave her a funny look, "He's sleeping and it's cold, I'm not uncovering him." She snapped. "Sorry, it's just a thing I do, maybe next time, you guys have a good day and stay warm." Sylvie smiled at the woman trying to play off the situation that had turned odd and she quickly left to gather Sophia.

"Come on Syl, I've done eight of these and all that it does is disappoint you." Antonio stood across from his wife in the locker room at district. "I have a feeling about this one, she came to me and was acting odd and this boy was a lot bigger than a year Antonio." Antonio stared at the pacifier in the bag, he hated doing this but knew it made her feel better. She was on a mission to eliminate every remotely Hispanic looking little boy in Chicago from being Elias. "You've had a feeling about all of them, the last one had Eva's nose, remember?"

Sylvie groaned and reached to grab the bag from his hand, but he pulled it back, "If you're going to mock me, I'll just have Kim or Adam do it." She snapped at him. "I'll do it, but you have to promise not to get upset or mad at me when it isn't him and…I want to have dinner with you and the kids every night this week." Sylvie contemplated a moment, "Fine but don't expect too much."

"Dude you better not drop my kid." Adam warned Antonio as he held a nine-month-old clone of Adam above his head. "God is that what I sound like?" Antonio laughed. "Worse and Kim will kill both of us if even a strand of hair is missing. You know she's momzilla." Antonio sighed and handed Wyatt off to Adam. "I don't blame her, do you?" Antonio shook his head as plopped on the couch.

"Sylvie wants me to run another pacifier she lifted off a lady at the park, she has a _feeling_ about this one too." He ran his hands down as his face as Adam sat next to him with the baby squirming on his lap. "Are you going to run it?"

"Of course, if I lie to her, she'll know. She always knows when I'm lying, it's her superpower." He laughed as he reached over and grabbed Wyatt from Adam to play with him. "We missed all this, if we ever get him back, he'll be walking and talking." Antonio stood Wyatt between his legs and let him balance while he held onto his hands.

"It's not an IF it's WHEN, Wyatt's gonna need his best friend to show him how to do stuff and to keep him out of trouble." Adam grinned at Antonio, knowing his kid would be the ornery one and would need one of Antonio's perfectly behaved children to keep him on the right path. "I hope you're right; I miss him more than you could ever know. This isn't something I would wish on my worst enemy."

Laura pushed her way through the door with Sophia trailing behind her, Sylvie had not taken Sophia to the grocery store since Elias had been kidnapped and Laura was her designated babysitter on grocery days. "Do you need any help putting stuff away?" She asked as she made her way toward the kitchen. "No, I'm almost done." Laura could hear the frustration in Sylvie's voice.

"What's wrong?" Laura moved behind the island to grab something for Sophia to eat. Sylvie slammed the pantry door with a huff, "Antonio." Laura sighed; she tried her best to stay neutral when it came to Antonio, but she always somehow got dragged into it. "What'd he do?"

Sylvie slumped onto the barstool, "He keeps pushing to come home and I'm not ready yet." Laura sat next to and wrapped an arm around her, "I think you should let him," Laura started cautiously, "He's got his issues but you know as well as I do that this is where he belongs, in this house with you and his kids, he deserves it and so do you." Sylvie laid her head down and sighed, "I know" Sylvie huffed. "He can't keep living with Matt and Gabby, eventually you're going to have to let him come home or let him know that it is over."

"Divorce? We are not getting divorced." Sylvie was confused why Laura would even suggest it. Laura shrugged her shoulders, "I never thought I would divorce him either but here we are. Hey, maybe the next wife will let us hang out with her too."

Sylvie rolled her eyes at Laura; she knew exactly what she was doing, and she wasn't going to let Laura get under her skin. "We're not. We're just having a hard time." Laura stood, "I have to go, but maybe you should start trying as hard as he is at putting you two back together."

"You got mail." Hailey dropped the stack on Antonio's desk as she walked by. "Thanks" he spun around and smiled at her as she sat down at her desk across from Adam. He spotted the manila envelope and pulled it out, knowing it was from the crime lab. "Hey look, test results on the latest pacifier, anyone care to do the honor?" He held it up in the air and Kim grabbed it out of his hand.

"I'll do it this time." She moved to Adams desk and sat on the edge and started at ripping it open. "Why do we even do this?" Jay asked from across the room. "It makes Sylvie happy." Antonio spun to look at him.

"Or because it might actually turn out to be positive." Kim jumped off the desk, "The DNA is a match to yours Antonio." Antonio jumped up and snatched the results from Kim's hands as Kim stared at him in disbelief.

"There is no fucking way." Antonio grabbed his cell out of his pocket and dialed Sylvie. "Get down to district now, I'll explain when you get here." He didn't elaborate and hung up. "We need to get as much information as we can from her and see if we can get prints off the pacifier." Antonio started barking orders at Kevin.

"Everyone clear your desk; Elias is top priority." Voight spoke from his office doorway. "This is the first major clue we've had in over a year and we're not going to lose him again. Hailey you handle Sylvie when she gets here."

"Voight" Antonio started to argue, "No, you two are too emotional with each other. Hailey will talk to her; I need you out here working it."

Sylvie didn't know what to expect when she arrived at district, she always expected the worse. She walked up the stairs and toward the desk when Antonio appeared from the gate. "I'll explain later Trudy." He rushed as he pulled Sylvie by the arm up the stairs and through the gate. Sylvie pulled her arm from him and stopped, "What is going on?" She planted her feet on the stairs and refused to move.

"We got a positive DNA hit on that pacifier." He grinned at her as she started back at him in complete shock. "No, you didn't, stop teasing me." He grabbed her shoulder and looked her in the eyes, "Yes we did, you know I would never joke about that, you're going to talk to Hailey, you need to give her any information you have, every single tiny detail you can remember about that woman."

Sylvie didn't know what to say or do, she just stood there completely shell shocked. Antonio grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, and she started crying. "This is the lead we needed, and we couldn't have done it without you." He put his forehead to hers and wiped her eyes with his thumbs. "We're going to move fast on this so I'm taking you straight to Hailey, my goal is Elias is back with us today." He kissed her on the forehead and pulled her up the stairs.

"Sarge, we have an address, Hailey and Adam are headed that way to sit on it." Antonio poked his head into Voight's office on his way out of the building. "I want you to stay here with Sylvie." Voight knew it would be a fight, but he didn't want Antonio anywhere near the house.

"Excuse me? I'm going." Antonio growled at him. "I'm not arguing, stay with your wife." Voight grabbed his jacket and pushed past Antonio without another word. Antonio watched as Voight disappeared through the door and turned and headed toward desk where Sylvie was sitting. "Hey," he approached her and sat on the desk in front of her, "You okay?"

Sylvie nodded her head and grabbed his hand and pulled herself closer to him, "Do you think he remembers us?" he pulled her up into a hug and held her, "It doesn't matter if he does or doesn't, we're his parents and he'll know we love him."

"Why didn't you go with them?" she held onto him, she had forgot how much she missed being in his arms where she felt safe, like the world couldn't touch her. "Voight told me to stay with you, no offense but I would rather be there."

"I'm glad you're here." She mumbled into his chest, "I can't hug anyone else like this without it being awkward." She was nervous and the tension between them was there, but it felt lighter somehow, like a light was finally at the end of the tunnel they had been trying to escape for the past year.

Antonio hated sitting and waiting, it was torture, Sylvie watched as he paced back and forth through the bullpen. He stopped and messed with something on Adam's desk and then checked his phone and sighed. "What the fuck is taking so long, it's been four hours, and no one is updating me."

"If we don't hear anything that's good right?" Sylvie asked hoping that they would get the outcome they all wanted and needed. "It means nothing has happened yet." He huffed and sat in Kim's chair and started organizing the files on her desk to distract himself. "What will happen if they do get him?" She wanted to know but she was also trying to distract him. "He'll go to the hospital; we'll probably have to do a DNA test." He stood again and started pacing. "Ugh, this is torture, I need to know what's going on."

Antonio and Sylvie heard a noise, and both turned their heads toward the stairs, Platt was standing there clearly annoyed with her task, "Well come on both of you." She motioned for them to follow her. "Both of us? Where are we going?" Antonio was confused.

She smiled at him and started happy dancing, "I think there is a little boy at Med who needs his mom and dad."


	27. Chapter 27

"Fourteen months, one week, six days, that's 438 days since we've seen him, 438 days we weren't able to be his mom and dad, 438 days that we missed him laughing, crying, crawling, walking, talking." Sylvie muttered softly as she stared out the window watching the city lights fly by with the blue and red glow from the police lights on the truck as Antonio sped along determined to set a record pace to the hospital. Antonio squeezed her hand and she turned slightly and gave him a small smile. "Try not to think about the time, just that we have him back." He was trying to be supportive but inside he was losing it, he had dreamed about this for so long but had started to give up hope without realizing, as the days turned into weeks and weeks into months it just became harder to hold onto.

"I wonder what he looks like, I've had this image in my head for so long, I don't want to be disappointed if he looks nothing like it." She sighed as she gripped his hand tighter and pulled it toward her chest.

"It doesn't matter what he looks like, it's Elias and he'll be perfect no matter what." He pulled his hand free from her grip and pulled her toward him so he could hug her. He had missed this contact since their separation and would take as much of it as he could get. He swung the truck into the ambulance bay and parked in the law enforcement parking. He took and deep breath and released it slowly, "Are you ready?" Sylvie nodded her head slowly and Antonio threw his door open and jumped out.

"What the hell is taking so long?" Antonio was agitated yelling at no one in particular as he paced back and forth in the waiting room. "Detective set down before you wear a hole in the carpet from all that nervous energy, they'll get you when they're ready." Antonio stopped and stared at Platt for a moment contemplating her words before he silently shook his head and continued.

The door creaked and Antonio shot to it like an arrow arriving before the doctor could step a foot through the threshold. "Elias, where is he? Is he okay? When can we see him?" Antonio unloaded his questions as Sylvie moved in front of him, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and waited for the verdict on their son. The doctor threw up his hands, "Whoa, okay first things first, the rapid DNA test shows that you are the biological parents of the child, Elias. Next, he is very healthy, whoever was caring for him, did so very well, there are no signs of malnutrition or abuse of any kind."

"Can we see him?" Sylvie mumbled barely above a whisper, scared she would be turned down and that this was all an evil joke being played on her. "Give us a couple more minutes and we'll take you back to see him." The doctor smiled and disappeared out the door as quickly as he had appeared.

"What the fuck?" Antonio shouted, throwing his hands up in aggravation, "Where the fuck is the team and why can't we see our son?" he yelled at no one in particular as a waiting room full of people stared at them. "Dawson, sit down now!" Platt snapped her fingers and pointed at the seat next to her. He dropped his head and followed her orders, Sylvie following behind him and taking the seat next to him.

Fifty-three minutes had passed since she had found out her son was okay; she had been looking forward to this moment for longer than any parent should ever have to wait but standing outside that room knowing her son was on the other side of the door was almost too overwhelming. Sylvie grabbed Antonio's hand and held onto it for dear life, afraid that if she let go, she would wake up from this dream and her baby boy would still be missing. She had dreamed this before, but it always turned into a nightmare and she would wake up to a gaping hole in her heart where her child should be, and she would die all over again. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath trying to steady herself as she stepped through the door behind Antonio.

She broke down and fell to her knees as Antonio grabbed for her and tried to hold her steady as she caught sight of the most beautiful boy she had ever seen, brown hair, brown eyes and the spitting image of Diego at that age. She knew immediately that was her son, there was no denying him. "Antonio, Sylvie, this is Elias but he knows the name Oliver." The woman holding him appeared to be a child protective services worker, she held him up and he looked at them with wide scared eyes. "Oliver, the boy looked up at her, "These nice people are your mommy and daddy. I'm going to hand you to daddy." Antonio stepped forward as the worker placed Elias in his arms.

In an instant Antonio's whole world felt complete like nothing could touch them and nothing bad could ever go wrong again, it was a feeling of peace he hadn't felt in such a long time he wasn't even sure it existed anymore. "Hey buddy, I've missed you." He spoke to his son as he tried fighting back tears he had no hope of actually stopping. The toddler just stared at him unsure of what was happening but made absolutely no sound. Antonio looked at Sylvie and knew she needed to hold him more than anyone else, "I think your mom needs to hold you more than I do."

He pulled Sylvie to him with his free hand and handed Elias off, Sylvie apprehensively took him, still scared it was all a dream. His weight in her arms grounded her in reality and she pulled him to her chest and just breathed in his scent, hoping somehow she could wake and it would be fourteen months earlier and she could ask for help and not lose so much of her sons' life. "I'm never letting you go again." She whispered to Elias as she just held onto him as tight as she could, wanting to savor every single second of this moment.

"Can we take him home tonight?" Antonio wanted to put as much distance between them and the hospital as quickly as they could. The worker confirmed they could indeed take him home but they would have to follow up several times. Antonio and Sylvie agreed not really caring about the stipulations as long as they could have him back with them and their family where he belonged.

"I think there are a couple of other people who are really eager to see you." Antonio teased the toddler as him and Sylvie left the hospital, her clinging to Elias wishing she didn't have to strap him into his carseat. "I want to be selfish with him for a while, I don't want to share him with anyone, just us." She watched Antonio for his reaction to her statement but he just grabbed her hand and squeezed.

The drive home at three in the morning was quiet, a vast change from the hustle of the hospital giving both of them time to process what had happened, in a matter of hours they went from having no clue where their son was for more than a year to having him sound asleep in the back of the truck, emotions had ran high from the moment Kim opened that envelope and read those results and it never let up, it was exhausting and honestly none of them had anymore fight left and he just wanted to get home and fall asleep in his bed with his wife.

Antonio remembered something that he had forgotten during all the excitement and anxiety of the evening and he was so scared to ask, he could feel the lump as he tried forcing himself but he was terrified of the answer. He glanced at Sylvie who was watching the little boy in the back as if he might disappear, "Hey?" he managed to croak out even with a lump threatening to suffocate him. Sylvie let her eyes leave her son for just a second as she glanced at him, noting that he looked nervous or scared, maybe a combination of both she thought to herself, "are you okay?"

The question about his wellbeing threw him for a second and he thought about just dropping the subject and dealing with it later but he couldn't, there was no way he would be able to, he gathered every bit of courage he could muster, "Can I come home now?"


	28. Chapter 28

It had been a whirlwind of a day and Sylvie was exhausted but it was a whirlwind and exhaustion she welcomed with open arms, she was turned in her seat facing the back, never taking her eyes off the most beautiful little boy she had ever laid eyes on. "Hey" she heard Antonio squeak out and she could tell there was something he wanted to talk about but he was scared to ask. She glanced at him and returned her attention back to their son, she was bound to never take her eyes off him again, "Are you okay?" she asked.

She noted the nervousness in his face and the uncertainness in his body language, "Can I come home now?" he managed to ask just barely above a whisper while keeping his focus squarely on the road, he didn't want to see the look on her face if she rejected him. In that moment she felt horrible for how she had treated him the past year, she blamed him for everything that had gone wrong and taken everything from him in the process, she broke him into a million pieces the exact way Laura had when she left him after Diego was kidnapped.

"I'm sorry" she started, and Antonio interrupted her, "Never mind, it was a stupid question, we can talk about it when you're ready." He tried to play it off but his heart was shattering knowing that he wouldn't be able to be with his son and family.

Sylvie grabbed his hand and pulled it toward her chest, "Let me finish, I'm sorry for the whole past year, I know words don't make up for all my selfishness and the hell I put you through but I truly am sorry, and I just really want our family back together and for us to move on from this."

His heart was beating a mile a minute and he could barely contain his excitement. "Are you sure?" he asked still apprehensive that she would change her mind. "Tonio…he's going to need both of us, he needs to get to know us and I think maybe we need to get to know each other again, we're not the same people we were a year ago." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, "remember, we're okay, even when we're not."

He hadn't heard those words since the night he left over a year ago, he turned and gave her a small smile, "Thanks" he said simply not really knowing what else there was to say. The rest of the drive home was complete silence, he had hoped that one day they would bring Elias home but also knew the statistics on missing children ever being found alive and he was thanking god that he didn't have to wait any longer than they had to make their family complete again.

The next several weeks flew by in a flash, Sylvie couldn't believe how easily Elias fit back into the family, there were temper tantrums and lots of crying but he took to Sophia immediately. He clung to her and she was more than willing to have someone else her age to play with and boss around, it was as if they had never been separated. Sylvie watched as Sophia took toys from Elias and gave them to Wyatt then told Elias that he had to share.

"I'm glad you called, I missed this." Kim didn't want to make a huge deal but she loved Sylvie and hated seeing her so broken. "So did I, I'm sorry I was so distant, it was just hard." Kim shook her head, "You don't need to apologize, nor do I want you too, you were doing the best you could to keep yourself together, I know that, Antonio knew that, and so did everyone else."

Antonio leaned against the doorjamb watching Sophia, Elias, and Wyatt playing in the front room as Kim and Sylvie sat on the floor playing with them, thinking about the anger and frustration that had led them to this moment. The last several weeks had been difficult with a parade of social service workers demanding access to his son and mandatory therapist visits and doctors' visits but he would do it all over again to have Elias home safe and to be back home with his family. "It's hard to look away from him for even a second huh" Adam startled Antonio out of his thoughts.

"It's just weird, last time we saw him he was this tiny little thing that did nothing but scream at us and now he walks and plays, we missed so much that we'll never get back and he's still unsure of us." Antonio shrugged knowing that it wasn't all going to be perfect right away. "Ya'll will get there, he just needs more time to know that you're mom and dad." Adam clapped him on the back. "Wyatt really took to him, I think he knows Elias will keep him out of trouble." Adam laughed as he watched his son try to copy everything Elias did.

"How's it being back home?" Adam was treading lightly knowing that there was still strain there. Antonio cocked an eyebrow, "I'm here and that's all that really matters, the rest will fall into place eventually." He shrugged his shoulders knowing that the hardest part was getting back home, this was where his family was, even separated Eva and Diego opted to stay with Sylvie and he wouldn't have let them leave even if they wanted to, sure they were both adults now but this was their home and he wasn't going to give up on it no matter how long it took.

Kim watched her friend for a minute, Sylvie clearly couldn't take her eyes off her son, she glanced at Wyatt and couldn't imagine not being able to hold him or love him for over a year, she knew that watching her best friends go through this shaped how she acted as a mother. She was over-protective from the moment he was born, limiting the people who had access to him, it had scared her beyond belief seeing that even the child of a police officer could be stalked and kidnapped and just disappear without a trace. "I'm pregnant again." Kim laughed and smiled at Sylvie who wrapped her in a hug, "Congrats, how far along?" Sylvie was giddy with excitement, it was the first time she had heard really good news since getting Elias back.

"About ten weeks we found out the day before Elias was found but we decided to wait for stuff to settle down before we told anyone." Kim couldn't stop smiling, she was excited to finally be able to share it with her family. Sylvie jumped up and ran to Adam and wrapped him in a hug, "Congrats, I'm so excited for you two and little Wyatt who's going to be the best big brother, Yay!" Wyatt clapped his hands when he heard the yay and started babbling in his baby talk, obviously excited about whatever was going on.

Antonio noticed Sophia went quiet and looked like she was scared, "Hey SoSo, what's wrong?" he asked kneeling in front of his upset daughter. "Is Wyatt's baby going to go away like Eli?" Antonio scooped her up and held her tight, "No honey, Wyatt's baby is going to stay with him, no one else is ever going to go away, I promise." Sylvie was stroking her daughter's hair, trying to soothe her fears. They knew everyone was affected but they underestimated how much Sophia was, she was so young when it happened they hoped that it wouldn't be as much of an issue with her but she had to live through all the emotions and turbulence also which caused her to grow up faster than either one of them liked.

Kim stepped forward and grabbed Sophia out of Antonio's arms, "Look here little lady, this baby will have you as a big cousin which means nothing can happen to it because you're the best and it will love you just like Wyatt loves you, so can you help me keep it safe?" Sophia nodded her head and smiled, "And it has uncle Adam so it's 'specially safe." She giggled as she reached for Adam who gladly took her and wrapped her in a hug.

"When do I get my new baby?" Adam laughed, "Your new baby will take a little while to get here but I promise you'll be the first to hold it, okay?" Adam made his deal with his favorite girl, "Okay!" Sophia nodded her head in contentment and wiggled to get down, eager to get back to playing with her brother and cousin.


	29. Chapter 29

Antonio stood looking at the two offensive blue lines on the small piece of plastic, his mind was racing a thousand thoughts a minute. Elias had a habit of throwing random stuff into the kitchen trash and Antonio was searching for his cell phone that had mysteriously disappeared from the coffee table when his eye caught what he thought was a pregnancy test shoved under a bunch of papers. He reached for it, he had seen enough positive ones in his life to know exactly what he was seeing. He shook his head and buried the test back where he found it.

"Hey babe" he eyed Sylvie as she walked through the kitchen to the front room wondering how long she had known and when she was planning on telling him. "Hey, can you round up Eli and Sophia we're supposed to be at Matt and Gabby's in half an hour?" she smiled as she headed up the stairs.

"On it" he agreed as he headed toward the backyard. He wanted to let her come to him but his mind was spinning and he wasn't sure if he could keep it to himself.

"Elias you have to come down now, SoSo already went inside" he pleaded with his two-year-old son who wasn't willing to come out of the fort. He climbed the latter but the toddler wasn't going to go easily. Elias screamed and kicked his foot out to block his dad from grabbing him and caught Antonio in the mouth, he cursed under his breath as he tasted the blood on his lip. He flipped the screaming toddler over his shoulder and hauled him toward the house.

He was trying to keep his eyes on the road but he couldn't help glancing at Sylvie, "What?" she caught his eye, "Nothing" he smirked. "Something, you keep staring at me" she was playing with her hair, twisting it around her fingers.

He didn't want to give away that he knew but he wanted to make her uncomfortable. "Nothing, just after Elias kicked me in the face I realized as soon as he's out of this stage, we're done with babies and that's a relief because I'm really too old for all this", he watched her carefully, he knew every line, every crease of her face, he knew what every movement meant.

"Shut up you're not old you're only forty-four, Herrmann had one at fifty." She laughed. "You're just bitter that you let a toddler get a kick in."

"I don't know Syl, Eva's graduating college this year and Diego is leaving to do a year in China, I think this is our time to finally slow down."

"Maybe" she glanced back at the back seat, "it has been a pretty chaotic past couple years, hasn't it?" she closed her eyes and exhaled loudly, thinking about all the heartache and chaos they had been through "you want to slow down, then how about we take a nice long vacation this year, just me and you." She smiled at him, "We never had a honeymoon and we've never really been alone."

"Yeah, that sounds nice, somewhere tropic." He was confused, he was hoping to back her into a corner but she was acting as if everything was completely normal.

"Ohh a cruise, Bahamas or the Caribbean or something!" Her eyes lit up as she thought of the destinations.

"Really, you have nothing to tell me?" he chuckled, deciding to just confront her.

"What would I have to tell you?"

"I found the test in the trash this morning, it's okay" he grinned.

"Test? What are you talking about?" she shifted in her seat to face him, utterly confused by what he was talking about.

Antonio glanced at her, now even more perplexed the obvious confusion on her face. "The, uh, positive pregnancy test that was buried in the trash this morning. I thought maybe Eli threw my phone in there so I was looking for it." He tried to reach for her hand and she pulled it back.

Sylvie stared at him a moment, "It wasn't mine, I'm not pregnant." She shook her head at him.

"Then whose would it be? Someone we know is pregnant."

Sylvie was wracking her brain trying to remember if anyone had been at their house but the only person was Kim and she was ready to pop any day. "Ohhh..." she stopped when she had a sudden realization. "What?"

"Promise me you won't flip out" she knew as soon as she suggested it that rational Antonio would cease to exist.

"What?" Just tell me he barked at her, clearly growing impatient with the whole situation. "Why don't we just have this conversation after dinner when we get home?" she didn't want the evening to be ruined but she knew there was little chance of him waiting now. "Just tell me" he growled, he knew he wasn't going to like what he said one bit and had a suspicion as to what she was going to say. He pulled into his sisters' driveway and parked.

"Eva's been the only other one at our house." Sylvie watched as Antonio's whole body tensed up, she knew he was going to blow any minute. "Just be calm, let's get through dinner with Gabby and Matt and we'll talk to Eva when she gets home later but promise me you won't blow up."

Sylvie watched him and the look in his eyes scared her, he reached for his phone and she grabbed it away from him. "No, you're not going to scream at her over the phone, we're going to go inside and have a nice dinner with your sister and then we will go home and calmly talk to Eva."

"Sylvie…" he warned as he tried to grab his phone back but she pulled back and shoved the phone in her purse, "Give me the phone, I'll call MY daughter if I want to." He yelled causing Elias to cry.

Sylvie opened the door and climbed out and unloaded Elias and Sophia from the backseat. "I'm taking the kids in, join us when you get that temper in check." He snapped as she slammed the truck door.

"Be warned Antonio's in mood" Sylvie huffed to Gabby as she put Elias down. "Oh lord, what now?" Gabby looked at the door toward the truck, "He looks pissed, you two fighting about something? Is there something I can do?"

"Harboring Eva for the rest of her life would help" she chuckled nervously.

"Eva? What'd she do?" Sylvie rolled her eyes, "Antonio found a pregnancy test, apparently it was positive and the only one who's been at the house lately is Kim and we all know it isn't her and it isn't me so..."

"Oh shit, should I go out and talk to him?" Gabby couldn't believe what she was hearing and she knew Antonio had to be freaking out. "No, leave him, he'll come in when he calms down, _IF_ he calms down." Sylvie sighed and headed toward the kitchen to help Gabby finish dinner.

The slamming of the front door startled everyone from their plates, "Glad to see no one waited for me." Antonio grumbled as he made his way toward the table still no better than Sylvie had left him in the truck.

Sylvie shrugged her shoulders "If you would've came in when we did, it wouldn't be an issue."

"Antonio…" Gabby started, she was worried about Antonio, she could tell he wasn't doing good, "I assume she already told you." He interrupted her before she could finish her words. "She did, and you're not even positive its Eva's so sit down and shut up"

"Eva?" Matt was watching the situation unfold but he had been outside cooking on the grill and had missed the whole conversation. Antonio through his hands up, "IT SEEMS MY DAUGHTER HAS STUPIDLY GOTTEN HERSELF INTO A MESS SHE CAN'T GET OUT OF" Antonio finally couldn't control the anger he was feeling anymore, he started pacing the room.

Sylvie stood, "Thanks guys but I think it's time we leave." She smiled at Gabby.

"SIT, WE'RE STAYING" he ordered her. Sylvie held her spot and stared at him, he had never ordered her around and she didn't like it. "We're leaving, especially if you're going to be an ass, and don't ever talk to me like that again, now let's go" she spat back at him.

She knew Antonio didn't handle any situation involving any of his children well but she would be damned if she let him bully his way through this and treat Eva like crap in the process.

The ride home was tense, she could feel the fire coming off him in waves and she doubted his ability to have a civil conversation. She thought about messaging Laura to meet them so they could all sit and talk but given their tense history she thought better of it and decided she would try to mediate and figure it out.

"It might not be her, maybe one of her friends was over while we were at work." Antonio shifted his eyes contemplating her words, "it's her" he grumbled barely audible.

"She twenty-two, she's an adult and she's had to grow up way too fast but she will be okay and she needs to know that we will all be there for her, especially you because you are her hero and she's scared of disappointing you." Sylvie grabbed his chin and pulled it towards her forcing him to look at her. "She will need you if it's her" she could see the tears threatening to fall but he was trying with all his might to hold it in.

Sylvie saw Eva's car as the pulled onto their street and sighed, "Promise me you won't blow up at her." Antonio nodded his head but remained silent, he was incapable of forming any words in that moment, his throat went dry and panic mode set in. This talk was something he had never anticipated having to have with her and it shattered his heart.

Sylvie climbed the stairs to Eva's room and knocked gently, "Hey honey, your dad wants you downstairs in a couple minutes, we need to talk to you."

Antonio was losing it inside but he knew Sylvie was right, he needed to keep calm and he did love his daughter, she was his first born and he loved her more than words could ever describe he just hated to know that her life would never be simple from here on out and if he was being honest he was blaming himself for all the mistakes he had made along the way with her and how much he had put on her over the years.

"Hey dad, what's up?" he was broken from his thoughts. "Sit" was all he was able to mutter as he pointed to the chair across from his at the table, Eva took her seat and Sylvie slid in next to her and shot Antonio a look warning him not to be mean.

"I think it would be better if Syl talks" he knew he wouldn't be able to hold it together and he didn't want to hurt her. Sylvie met his eyes and nodded, understanding that he wasn't ready.

Sylvie took a deep breath and turned to Eva, "First of all me and your dad love you very much and we're so proud of everything you've accomplished and the person who you've become." Her words were met with a wide smile "I love you guys too" she was apprehensive scared of where the conversation was going.

"That being said, your dad found a pregnancy test were almost certain belongs to you in the trash this morning." She could see the tears starting to form in Eva's eyes and she pulled her in for a hug.

"I didn't mean for it to happen and I don't know what to do, I'm sorry" Eva choked out between sobs as she clung to Sylvie. "Everything will be fine, we'll figure it all out" Sylvie reassured her, she made eye contact with Antonio begging him to say something.

"Eva," he started not quite sure what he was going to say, she met his eyes and he damn near broke, he hated seeing her upset, he pulled her to him and held on to her as tight as he could. "It will be okay, everything will be fine, I'll always be there for you"


End file.
